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For Immediate Release
November, 08 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Joe Karp-Sawey, media manager,Tel: +44 (0)7711 875 345,Email:,joe.karpsawey@globaljustice.org.uk
Suspend Patents on Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine, Say Campaigners
Reacting to reports that early phase 3 trials of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine have been 90% successful, Heidi Chow, pharmaceuticals campaigner at Global Justice Now said:
"It's positive news that Pfizer may have found an effective Covid-19 vaccine, but right now it will only be for the few. We need governments to step in and make it available for the many - including by suspending patent rights.
WASHINGTON
Reacting to reports that early phase 3 trials of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine have been 90% successful, Heidi Chow, pharmaceuticals campaigner at Global Justice Now said:
"It's positive news that Pfizer may have found an effective Covid-19 vaccine, but right now it will only be for the few. We need governments to step in and make it available for the many - including by suspending patent rights.
"If we continue to leave everything to the market, it will artificially restrict the number of doses the world can produce. As it stands, Pfizer and BioNTech can only produce 50 million doses for 2020 and 1.3bn for 2021 - this is a two-dose vaccine, that means only 25 million can receive it this year and just 650 million people next year.
"This is nowhere near enough to meet global demand, especially when most of these doses have already been hoarded by rich countries through advanced purchase deals leaving nothing for lower income countries. We are heading towards artificially created scarcity for this vaccine which is completely unacceptable in a global pandemic.
"Pfizer and BioNTech need to share this vaccine with the world, not hoard it for profit. That should mean putting it into the WHO's global pool so that the technological know-how and patent rights are shared to enable multiple manufacturers to produce it as fast as possible. (1) Since they won't, the World Trade Organisation needs to act to suspend patents on all Covid-19 medicines, as South Africa and India have proposed. (2) This is a race against time and we cannot allow the pursuit of profit to triumph over human need."
Unlike their competitors Astra-Zeneca, Johnson and Johnson and GSK, the companies have made no pledges not to profit from this vaccine during the pandemic, despite BioNTech receiving public funding from the German government and the EU.(3)
Notes
1. WHO COVID-19 technology access pool, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/covid-19-technology-access-pool
2. Pfizer's CEO called the WHO's efforts 'nonsense' in May, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/patent-pool-potential-covid-19-products-nonsense-pharma-leaders/
South Africa and India have proposed the WTO suspends all patents until the pandemic is brought under control, https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/india-south-africa-ask-wto-to-waive-off-patents-intellectual-property-protection-for-faster-covid-19-care-access/story/417668.html
3. Public money received on this vaccine:
BioNTech to Receive up to EUR375M in Funding from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to Support COVID-19 Vaccine Program BNT162, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/09/15/2093535/0/en/BioNTech-to-Receive-up-to-375M-in-Funding-from-German-Federal-Ministry-of-Education-and-Research-to-Support-COVID-19-Vaccine-Program-BNT162.html
European Investment Bank to provide BioNTech with up to EUR100 million in debt financing for COVID-19 vaccine development and manufacturing, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1034
Global Justice Now is a democratic social justice organisation working as part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. We mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.
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“What tenants share at these hearings won’t lead to empty promises," said the mayor. "Their testimony will guide our work and help shape the policies we advance to build a city New Yorkers can afford to call their home.”
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After delivering on his promise of universal childcare for New York families, launching a process to ramp up construction of affordable housing, and personally seeing to snow removal after a major storm and the repair of a road hazard that's long plagued cyclists, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday made strides toward fulfilling another campaign pledge: cracking down on "bad landlords."
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People who testify will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with officials from City Hall, "including commissioners from the city’s housing and consumer protection agencies, to help shape future policy," according to the BK Reader.
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Trump is trying to repeal the "endangerment finding" -- the scientific investigation that led EPA to conclude that climate change is dangerous to humans.It's scientifically unjustifiable of course, but they're going to have to justify it to a court. That should be fun to watch.
[image or embed]
— David Roberts (@volts.wtf) February 10, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Big Oil spent over $445 million to elect Trump and other Republican candidates during the 2024 election cycle.
Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a nonprofit advocacy group, said in a statement Tuesday that “Zeldin took a chainsaw to the endangerment finding, undoing this long-standing, science-based finding on bogus grounds at the expense of our health.”
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Former Rep. Tom Malinowski also decried the influence of AIPAC “dark money” on the Democratic primary process.
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Former Rep. Tom Malinowski on Tuesday conceded the 2026 Democratic primary race to represent New Jersey's 11th Congressional District to progressive challenger Analilia Mejía, whom he vowed to back in the general election.
In a statement posted on social media, Malinowski praised Mejía for "running a positive campaign and for inspiring so many voters," while also emphasizing that "it is essential that we send a Democrat to Washington to fill this seat, not a rubber stamp" for President Donald Trump.
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