Vaccines, 30 billion in public funding against 16 from private individuals: the greatest risk for research has been taken by the States, not the pharmaceutical companies

ROME – A study prepared at the request of the European Parliament, presented on Thursday, showed the strong prevalence of the financial risk assumed by the public compared to the private sector in the production of vaccines against Covid-19. A risk that has not been matched by decision-making power over prices and distribution, with serious burdens for the collective interest. It is essential for the European Union to change course, immediately establishing new rules for the public-private relationship and equipping itself with a European public infrastructure for vaccines and medicines, as proposed some time ago by the Inequalities and Diversity Forum (ForumDD).

Research. The decisive contribution in the identification and development of vaccines that have helped to save the lives of citizens from the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe and in the USA and elsewhere, has therefore come from the States, i.e. from the taxpayers, who have put the own funds far more than companies have done, both in Research and Development and in the start-up of production. This is what emerges from a study carried out by Massimo Florio and Simona Gamba (University of Milan) and Chiara Pancotti (CSIL), at the request of the European Parliament, Special Commission on the lessons to be learned from the pandemic (COVI).

A different reality than how it was told. It is a completely different reality from the narrative according to which the results obtained with vaccines are mainly due to the risk taken by pharmaceutical companies. The study presents the first estimate ever made of how much investment companies and states, private and public, have made to identify and develop vaccines before they knew they worked (therefore investments “at risk”). For the nine vaccines examined by the study, the research estimated that companies made investments of 5 billion euros for research and development and 11 billion for productive investments before having certainty of sale, for a total of 16 billion. Against these, non-repayable grants of 9 billion for Research and Development (with enormous variability between receiving companies and largely from the USA) and 21 billion for advanced purchase agreements (in similar parts from the USA and the European Union), i.e. purchase agreements before the authorization of the vaccines themselves, for a total of 30 billion.

The very high extra-profits of private individuals. “In summary, most of the financial risk that allowed the nine vaccines examined was assumed by the public sector, not by companies”, commented Fabrizio Barca, co-coordinator of the Inequalities and Diversity Forum . “This data denies, in the first place, that the very high extra-profits made by pharmaceutical companies in the sale of vaccines which, for some of them have reached tens of billions of euros per individual company, are to some extent justified by the market risk from hired them. A twice greater risk has been assumed by the States with means of the taxpayers (of today or of tomorrow). But in the face of this risk, the States have not exercised the function of governing and controlling the decisions on prices and distribution which are the responsibility of those who assume the majority of the risk”.

Modern And Pfizer they will quintuple the price per dose. With excess financial resources poured into businesses for failing to make a decisive contribution, governments could have strengthened public health systems. A distortion that is likely to worsen further in the immediate future, given that Modern And Pfizer they announced their intention to quintuple the price per dose to about 100 dollars from the current 20, and that immunization only lasts a few months. So you will start again having to pay an unlimited bill. Moreover, the study argues, without the very strong price differentials between the various vaccines being accompanied by any assessment of the differences in their effectiveness.

Maintain public control of intellectual property. A strong course correction is clearly needed to face the possible developments of the current pandemic and any similar emergency in a completely different way. The choice made so far by the European Union with HERA does not go in this direction, but confirms the logic of public subsidies in research and development activities on which the States have no say. “We need a European public intervention to predict and deal with the next pandemics and other emergencies that are already visible” – said Massimo Florio, who is also a member of the ForumDD. “In crucial fields for health, it is necessary to develop drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other remedies, to be offered to citizens as common goods: with Research and Development also in collaboration with private companies, but keeping the < > and strategic decisions on the whole cycle of biomedical and drug innovation in those fields”.

The construction of a public infrastructure. The study argues that it is immediately necessary to regulate at European level the sharing of price and distribution decisions between private and public in relation to the size of the respective investments. When fully operational, the appropriate path is to start the construction of a public infrastructure, such as the one proposed in the previous study “Biomed Europa”, carried out by the same economists for the Science and Technology panel of the European Parliament (STOA), starting from a idea matured already in 2019 in the ForumDD.

The appointment of next April 12th. The study will be illustrated in Italy on April 12 at 11, at the Bass Foundation of Rome during an event organized by ForumDD on the decisive theme of how to stop the process of concentration of knowledge, which is the primary cause of the grave, growing inequalities and injustices.