SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A researcher works in a lab that is developing testing for the COVID-19 coronavirus at Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation on February 28, 2020 in Nutley, New Jersey. (Photo: Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
70+ Groups Demand Trump Prohibit Coronavirus Profiteering by Big Pharma
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development—not pharma corporations."
Mar 04, 2020
More than 70 organizations on Thursday demanded that the Trump administration forbid monopolies or price-gouging on all vaccines and coronavirus treatments and to reject any effort by private companies to profit off the public health crisis now roiling the U.S. and the world.
As the government offers subsidies to pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi and Regeneron, the open letter (pdf) from the groups, led by Public Citizen, said, the Trump administration must require all COVID-19 contracts guarantee reasonable pricing for any treatments or vaccines.
"If monopoly pricing of pharmaceutical companies inhibits access around the world, it will hinder our response to what could turn into a global pandemic."
--70+ civil society groups"Allowing companies to price-gouge and hold monopolies on treatment for the respiratory illness which has killed more than 3,300 people so far would have grave implications for the U.S. government's ability to stop the spread of COVID-19," the groups said.
"The imperative of requiring reasonable pricing and access is not just a matter of avoiding profiteering, it's a matter of public health urgency," they wrote. "If monopoly pricing of pharmaceutical companies inhibits access around the world, it will hinder our response to what could turn into a global pandemic."
"We need clear and firm commitments across all funding agencies, and for all types of products," the groups added. "Specifically, we call on your administration to require open, non-exclusive licenses. All manufacturers who can produce high-quality products and commit to reasonable pricing should be allowed to develop vaccines and treatments."
The letter was written days after congressional Democrats pushed their Republican colleagues to include "fair and reasonable price" standards in federal contracts for purchasing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, failing to force Republicans to apply those standards to the commercial market.
Taxpayers, the groups said, have already spent nearly $700 million on research and development regarding coronaviruses including COVID-19, SARS, and MERS since 2002.
That taxpayer-funded research "has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for the COVID-19 response," the groups wrote. "Taxpayers should not have to pay twice."
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development--not pharma corporations," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "Americans will not accept Trump giving Big Pharma corporations monopolies or letting pharma corporations profiteer off a potential pandemic that claims lives daily."
Public Citizen led the drafting of the letter a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress he could not guarantee that a federally-funded coronavirus vaccine or treatment would be affordable for all Americans. Azar told Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) that "we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest."
Azar, who led drug company Eli Lilly during a period when it doubled the price of insulin, later backtracked on the statement. But as Public Citizen and other groups wrote, "Vague assurances are not enough."
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development--not pharma corporations. Americans will not accept Trump giving Big Pharma corporations monopolies or letting pharma corporations profiteer off a potential pandemic that claims lives daily."
--Robert Weissman, Public Citizen
While not unusual in general, economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote in an op-ed on Thursday that allowing the pharmaceutical industry to set the price of life-saving treatment would "be disastrous in the context of an epidemic."
"No, Secretary Azar, it would be ludicrous to leave such operations to private industry," Sachs wrote. "Mr. Secretary, we should not grant patent protection for such a new vaccine produced heavily with public money to fight a global public emergency."
Sachs added that vaccine development should be placed in the hands of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with delivery and funding in the control of the federal government.
"Private industry can be a welcome partner but should operate under clear federal leadership and with no monopoly rights to the vaccine," Sachs wrote.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
More than 70 organizations on Thursday demanded that the Trump administration forbid monopolies or price-gouging on all vaccines and coronavirus treatments and to reject any effort by private companies to profit off the public health crisis now roiling the U.S. and the world.
As the government offers subsidies to pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi and Regeneron, the open letter (pdf) from the groups, led by Public Citizen, said, the Trump administration must require all COVID-19 contracts guarantee reasonable pricing for any treatments or vaccines.
"If monopoly pricing of pharmaceutical companies inhibits access around the world, it will hinder our response to what could turn into a global pandemic."
--70+ civil society groups"Allowing companies to price-gouge and hold monopolies on treatment for the respiratory illness which has killed more than 3,300 people so far would have grave implications for the U.S. government's ability to stop the spread of COVID-19," the groups said.
"The imperative of requiring reasonable pricing and access is not just a matter of avoiding profiteering, it's a matter of public health urgency," they wrote. "If monopoly pricing of pharmaceutical companies inhibits access around the world, it will hinder our response to what could turn into a global pandemic."
"We need clear and firm commitments across all funding agencies, and for all types of products," the groups added. "Specifically, we call on your administration to require open, non-exclusive licenses. All manufacturers who can produce high-quality products and commit to reasonable pricing should be allowed to develop vaccines and treatments."
The letter was written days after congressional Democrats pushed their Republican colleagues to include "fair and reasonable price" standards in federal contracts for purchasing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, failing to force Republicans to apply those standards to the commercial market.
Taxpayers, the groups said, have already spent nearly $700 million on research and development regarding coronaviruses including COVID-19, SARS, and MERS since 2002.
That taxpayer-funded research "has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for the COVID-19 response," the groups wrote. "Taxpayers should not have to pay twice."
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development--not pharma corporations," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "Americans will not accept Trump giving Big Pharma corporations monopolies or letting pharma corporations profiteer off a potential pandemic that claims lives daily."
Public Citizen led the drafting of the letter a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress he could not guarantee that a federally-funded coronavirus vaccine or treatment would be affordable for all Americans. Azar told Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) that "we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest."
Azar, who led drug company Eli Lilly during a period when it doubled the price of insulin, later backtracked on the statement. But as Public Citizen and other groups wrote, "Vague assurances are not enough."
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development--not pharma corporations. Americans will not accept Trump giving Big Pharma corporations monopolies or letting pharma corporations profiteer off a potential pandemic that claims lives daily."
--Robert Weissman, Public Citizen
While not unusual in general, economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote in an op-ed on Thursday that allowing the pharmaceutical industry to set the price of life-saving treatment would "be disastrous in the context of an epidemic."
"No, Secretary Azar, it would be ludicrous to leave such operations to private industry," Sachs wrote. "Mr. Secretary, we should not grant patent protection for such a new vaccine produced heavily with public money to fight a global public emergency."
Sachs added that vaccine development should be placed in the hands of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with delivery and funding in the control of the federal government.
"Private industry can be a welcome partner but should operate under clear federal leadership and with no monopoly rights to the vaccine," Sachs wrote.
More than 70 organizations on Thursday demanded that the Trump administration forbid monopolies or price-gouging on all vaccines and coronavirus treatments and to reject any effort by private companies to profit off the public health crisis now roiling the U.S. and the world.
As the government offers subsidies to pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi and Regeneron, the open letter (pdf) from the groups, led by Public Citizen, said, the Trump administration must require all COVID-19 contracts guarantee reasonable pricing for any treatments or vaccines.
"If monopoly pricing of pharmaceutical companies inhibits access around the world, it will hinder our response to what could turn into a global pandemic."
--70+ civil society groups"Allowing companies to price-gouge and hold monopolies on treatment for the respiratory illness which has killed more than 3,300 people so far would have grave implications for the U.S. government's ability to stop the spread of COVID-19," the groups said.
"The imperative of requiring reasonable pricing and access is not just a matter of avoiding profiteering, it's a matter of public health urgency," they wrote. "If monopoly pricing of pharmaceutical companies inhibits access around the world, it will hinder our response to what could turn into a global pandemic."
"We need clear and firm commitments across all funding agencies, and for all types of products," the groups added. "Specifically, we call on your administration to require open, non-exclusive licenses. All manufacturers who can produce high-quality products and commit to reasonable pricing should be allowed to develop vaccines and treatments."
The letter was written days after congressional Democrats pushed their Republican colleagues to include "fair and reasonable price" standards in federal contracts for purchasing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, failing to force Republicans to apply those standards to the commercial market.
Taxpayers, the groups said, have already spent nearly $700 million on research and development regarding coronaviruses including COVID-19, SARS, and MERS since 2002.
That taxpayer-funded research "has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for the COVID-19 response," the groups wrote. "Taxpayers should not have to pay twice."
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development--not pharma corporations," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "Americans will not accept Trump giving Big Pharma corporations monopolies or letting pharma corporations profiteer off a potential pandemic that claims lives daily."
Public Citizen led the drafting of the letter a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress he could not guarantee that a federally-funded coronavirus vaccine or treatment would be affordable for all Americans. Azar told Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) that "we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest."
Azar, who led drug company Eli Lilly during a period when it doubled the price of insulin, later backtracked on the statement. But as Public Citizen and other groups wrote, "Vague assurances are not enough."
"We the People have driven coronavirus research and development--not pharma corporations. Americans will not accept Trump giving Big Pharma corporations monopolies or letting pharma corporations profiteer off a potential pandemic that claims lives daily."
--Robert Weissman, Public Citizen
While not unusual in general, economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote in an op-ed on Thursday that allowing the pharmaceutical industry to set the price of life-saving treatment would "be disastrous in the context of an epidemic."
"No, Secretary Azar, it would be ludicrous to leave such operations to private industry," Sachs wrote. "Mr. Secretary, we should not grant patent protection for such a new vaccine produced heavily with public money to fight a global public emergency."
Sachs added that vaccine development should be placed in the hands of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with delivery and funding in the control of the federal government.
"Private industry can be a welcome partner but should operate under clear federal leadership and with no monopoly rights to the vaccine," Sachs wrote.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.