“With everything we have learned and accomplished over the past two years, now is the time to start closing the gap further between those who can access these innovations and those who cannot,” said the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant, Albert Bourla, during a press conference presenting the initiative in Switzerland. He was accompanied on stage by the Heads of State of Rwanda and Malawi, signatories of the agreement.
“Pfizer’s commitment sets a new standard that we hope others will emulate.” said the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, welcoming a “an important step towards sustainable health security”.
In addition to these two states, Ghana, Uganda and Senegal have already joined this agreement which focuses on five therapeutic areas: infectious diseases, oncology, rare diseases, inflammatory diseases and women’s health. It will increase access to Pfizer’s patented medicines and vaccines available in the United States and European Union for nearly 1.2 billion people.
A total of twenty-three of the company’s vaccines and medicines are patented in the fields concerned. This includes, for example, several cancer treatments, but also the antiviral Paxlovid and the Pfizer vaccine once morest covid-19.
If a better price has been negotiated, on the other hand, as part of the equity efforts in the fight once morest the pandemic, this is the one that will apply, Pfizer said. Selling at cost means that only manufacturing costs and transport expenses will be charged in the countries concerned. And if other drugs are developed in the future in these areas, they will automatically be included in the agreement.
The agreement is intended to apply in the long term to all low-income countries and to eighteen low- and middle-income countries. Albert Bourla also said that the pharmaceutical giant continued to work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the objective of developing new vaccines.
Infectious diseases kill nearly a million people every year in these poor countries, according to Pfizer.
