2021-04-22
The Greens say that the People’s Vaccine Alliance calculation that Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson have paid out $26 billion in dividends and stock buybacks to their shareholders in the past 12 months is appalling.
“Profit making from Covid-19 vaccines is gross and highlights exactly why we need publicly owned, Government run facilities in Australia”, Greens spokesperson on Health Senator Rachel Siewert said.
"How can big pharma make huge payouts to shareholders in the midst of a global pandemic, while billions of people don’t have access to vaccines?
"Moderna and Pfizer are selling the vast majority of their doses to rich nations, meanwhile, this week we have seen India add 1 million new cases of Covid-19 in just four days.
"The Australian Government is enabling vaccine apartheid in not supporting a proposal to the World Trade Organisation to waive intellectual property rights to allow Covid-19 vaccine production to be rolled out and made accessible and affordable to everyone in the global community.
"The Government needs to play a role in ensuring big pharma move to temporarily waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines to facilitate universal access.
"At the end of the day these multinationals are getting in the way of timely and equitable access to vaccines.
"Covid-19 vaccines should be seen as a public good, not a commodity.
"Australia has a global responsibility to ensure lower GDP nations get adequate and timely access to vaccines.
"It’s very clear that none of us are safe, until we are all safe."