I believe Johnson and Johnson are also selling their vaccine at cost price during the pandemic. Theirs should be the next one to come online, in the next few weeks.
Them (if they are indeed selling at cost price) and AstraZeneca should be applauded. It’s a humanitarian emergency for the population of the whole world and it is absolutely crucial that the poorest countries in the world are able to afford to vaccinate their people too, and have access to supplies. It’s no good wealthy western countries vaccinating their people and then the virus runs rife and mutates elsewhere in the world’s most densely populated areas of poverty, potentially escaping the vaccines available.
Heard this the other day and it’s very true - the pandemic isn’t over for anybody, until it’s over for everybody.
I also wonder if Big Pharma has a hand in the weird delay in the US and the EU approving the much, much cheaper and easier to roll out AstraZeneca vaccine. Seems almost criminal that they are in no rush whatsoever to grant EUA to AstraZeneca. The data is clearly all there and available, given UK, India, Argentina nd other countries have seen fit to approve it already.
For anybody who thinks this is a bit conspiracy theory...the head of Operation Warp speed, which is the organisation set up by the US government to facilitate the procurement, manufacturing and roll out of vaccines, was Moncef Slaoui. On being named to oversee the group, he had to resign his position on the board of Moderna.... funny how the Moderna vaccine is being distributed in the states and they don’t expect to be issuing the AstraZeneca until something like Easter. Nuts.