Vaccines: Amnesty International accuses laboratories of neglecting poor countries
Two doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (image iIlustration).
REUTERS - Dado Ruvic
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The NGO Amnesty International on Wednesday accused the pharmaceutical groups that produce the Covid-19 vaccines of fueling an "unprecedented human rights crisis", demanding the granting of two billion doses to poor countries.
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In a report titled "
A Double Dose of Inequality: Pharmaceutical Companies and the Covid-19 Vaccine Crisis
," the NGO says most of them are not prioritizing the poorest countries. The publication comes as a world vaccine summit is scheduled for Wednesday. US President Joe Biden has pledged to announce additional commitments to immunize least developed countries.
Vaccinating the world is our only way out of this crisis. It should be time to salute these companies, which created these vaccines so quickly, like heroes, "Amnesty General Secretary Agnès Callamard said in a statement."
Instead, to their shame and our sorrow Collectively, Big Pharma's intentional blocking of knowledge transfer and their maneuvering in favor of rich states has created a vaccine shortage that is quite predictable and devastating for so many others
”.
These companies have favored the sale of vaccines at high prices.
This means that only rich countries had the ability to buy these vaccines.
Pfizer and BioNTech have so far delivered nine times more vaccines to Sweden than to all low-income countries combined.
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International
The NGO reviewed the policies of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax - whose vaccine is not yet approved - in terms of human rights, pricing, intellectual property, sharing of knowledge and technology, dose allocation and transparency.
She concluded that "
to varying degrees, the six vaccine developers have failed to live up to their human rights responsibilities
."
Out of 5.76 billion doses administered, only 0.3% were in low-income countries, 79% going to countries with middle-upper and high income, underlines the NGO.
Billions of dollars in profits
Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna plan to generate a total of $ 130 billion in profits by the end of 2022, according to Amnesty, for whom "
profits should never come before lives
."
While most groups have received "billions of dollars in government funding, vaccine developers have monopolized intellectual property, blocked technology transfers, and aggressively limited measures that would expand the manufacture of these vaccines around the world." vaccines ”, accuses Amnesty.
►Also read: India: New Delhi will resume exports of vaccines against Covid-19
The NGO calls on companies and governments to "
change course
" to provide two billion vaccines to low and middle income countries.
Contacted by the NGO before publication of the report, all these companies except Novavax responded and recognized that a fair and equitable distribution, particularly in low-income countries, is essential, and highlighted their efforts in this direction, without convincing Amnesty.
►Also read: Vaccines: something for everyone!
(A
vec
AFP)
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