The Pfizer Farce
The Kalamazoo area has a long history with the medical industry. Our small city (and it’s neighbor Portage) was home to The Upjohn Company which in 1885 produced the then groundbreaking ‘friable pills’. These pills, which could be “reduced to a powder under the thumb” were the first of many drugs produced by the company which included well known medication such as Xanax and Rogaine.
136 years later, the Kalamazoo area is home to another groundbreaking development in pharmaceuticals, the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine, which is first processed in facilities within Missouri and Massachusetts, is finished in the ‘Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo Plant’ in Portage. The vaccine holds the honor of being both the first to be authorized for emergency and regular use.
The Kalamazoo plant, is currently the only producer of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and is one of two plants manufacturing the finished product world wide. The other, serving the European market is produced by BioNTech in Belgium with two additional sites soon to be added in Germany.
It is important to note that no corporation alone can supply the world with COVID-19 vaccines especially when considering that many vaccines currently available require two doses. This makes it imperative that the manufacturing method of the vaccines on the market, like the one produced in the Kalamazoo plant, are transparent and in ‘public domain’.
As it currently stands, much of the method for producing the Pfizer vaccine is claimed as confidential, patented and proprietary. In a SEC filing from July 2020, the company maintains the importance of these ‘trade secrets’ as integral to their company. However, these trade secrets are more importantly integral of the swift production and distribution of vaccines across the world.
The truth is these ‘trade secrets’ were funded and developed by tax payers money. Why? Because the research and development of treatments for viruses like COVID-19 do not provide companies like Pfizer the returns their shareholders expect. This left big pharma relying heavily of publicly funded research to create the bases of their profitable vaccine.
Since the pandemic began, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has dished out roughly $14.5B of public money for specific COVID-19 releated tests, treatments and vaccines. Including $1.95B to Pfizer for the production of 100 million doses for their vaccine.
Notably, Pfizer decided not to participate in ‘Operation Warp Speed’ during the development of their vaccine (Their development partner in Europe, BioNTech did take public money from both Germany and the European Union.). This decision was played off by Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, as an exercise to ‘unleash the power of science’ but it could also be seen as a way to keep the development and production of the vaccine even less transparent than it’s competitors.
Pfizer’s lack of participation in Operation Warp Speed has caused confusion and production bottlenecks for the important vaccine. In December, the FDA began hearing from health-care providers that they were able to get additional doses out of the ‘five dose’ vials with certain needle and syringe combinations. It was later discovered that these ‘hidden’ doses were already known by Pfizer who had been testing different needle and syringe combinations since August.
When the FDA gave permission for Pfizer to sell this sixth dose it caused a sudden demand for specific syringes which are currently running out. Jesse Goodman, a former chief scientist at the FDA told The Washington Post that it showed the lack of coordination between federal officials and the vaccine supplier. He also said that “If this problem had been identified and surfaced as part of the planning effort for vaccination, rather than suddenly ramping up production of these things in the last month, this is something that could have been done six months ago.”
This ‘lack of coordination’ can also be seen in Pfizer’s response to the global needs of vaccines. In May, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP). This is a voluntary scheme to share information about the vaccines, including trial data and patent rights. It aims to ease the production and distribution of COVID-19 treatments globally. This sensible scheme was billed as ‘dangerous’ by Pfizer boss Albert Bourla, not due to any health concerns but rather concerns for the companies ‘intellectual property’ in the new potentially $10bn a year COVID-19 vaccine market. Property, that is built on the foundations of tax payer’s money.
So what is the solution to this vaccine bottleneck, created and made worse by corporate greed? It’s simple, by taking away the profit motive and making public health the priority. That starts by stripping vaccines makers, like Pfizer, of their patents for their vaccines. Of course the preferable option is that these companies follow the footsteps of ‘Polio Pioneer’ Jonas Salk who never patented the vaccine or earned any money from his discovery, preferring it be distributed as widely as possible.
This is, of course, no easy task against a massive corporation like Pfizer. However, the people of the Kalamazoo area are in the good position to help make this happen.
We must demand that Kalamazoo becomes one of many cities producing vaccines, even at the expense of losing our ‘exclusive’ status.
We must demand that all vaccine makers, especially Pfizer, to join the C-TAP to ensure speedy production and distribution worldwide.
We must demand that Pfizer follow other companies and pledge not to profit off the vaccine.
We must demand that these companies recognize that the health of the global population is more important than the profits of the corporation.
This fight should be locally focused but globally minded.
One of the strategies to meet this demand is via Universal Healthcare such as the Medicare For All campaign and legislation. This legislation would not only give universal healthcare to every resident but also pave the way for more efficient public health campaigns, such as the mass production and distribution of vaccines.
Locally, groups such as the SWMI chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and MI for Single Payer Healthcare are working in our community to grow support for this legislation. Last year, the two groups were successful in passing a Kalamazoo County resolution supporting Medicare for All.
With this resolution in mind, Medicare For All supporters must pressure the Kalamazoo County Commission to take a stance on this issue. They must demand the same above points on the biases that human lives are more important than profit.
Similarly, we should continue to pressure our local politicians to support M4A resolutions. They may have no real power to make changes, but for the health of our community we must know where they stand on universal healthcare. Do they stand with the corporations or the people?
The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine should not just be something produced in Kalamazoo, but something Kalamazoo helped gift to the world.
