The giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer today pledged to sell some of its drugs and vaccines at a cost price in 45 poor countries, as part of an initiative announced during the Davos World Economic Forum.
Currently, five countries (Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda) Participate in this agreement, which focuses on five treatment areas: infectious diseases, oncology, rare diseases, inflammatory diseases and women’s health.
“This commitment will give almost 1.2 billion more people access to medicines and vaccines. “Pfizer has patents for which are available in the United States and the European Union,” Angela Huang, a Pfizer executive, told AFP.
A total of 23 vaccines and drugs of the company are covered by patents in these fields. These include, for example, many cancer treatments, but also the Paxlovid antiviral and the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19.
“If a lower price has been reached after the negotiations as part of the efforts to treat countries fairly in the fight against the pandemic, this will be the price that will apply,” Pfizer said.
Moreover, if other drugs are developed in the future in these areas, they will be automatically included in the agreement.
Selling at cost means that in these countries only manufacturing costs and shipping costs will be charged.
The agreement will be implemented after some time for all low-income countries and for 18 low- to middle-income countries, as defined by the World Bank.
Pfizer also has to work with the five countries already involved in the agreement to identify the necessary changes – especially in terms of procedures, infrastructure or even the training of medical and nursing staff – so that these treatments actually reach patients.
Infectious diseases kill nearly one million people each year in these poor countries, according to the company.
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