Pfizer “given away” medicine to the 45 poorest countries in the world

Pfizer “given away” medicine to the 45 poorest countries in the world

It is a bizarre situation for sick people in developing countries: From a scientific point of view, they could be helped, but the costs for the medicines are too expensive. Pfizer no longer wants to earn money from the poorest of the poor.

Medical research has made enormous progress over the past few decades. However, the successes only fully benefit people in rich countries, people in developing countries often simply cannot afford expensive medicine. The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer no longer wants to make any money from it.

Pfizer had already announced in May 2022 with its program “An Accord for a Healthier World” wanting to supply developing countries with cheap medicine. At that time, however, only the drugs patented by Pfizer itself, such as the corona drug Paxlovid and one of the most important breast cancer drugs, fell under the agreement, with which the poorest developing countries were to receive the drugs at cost price.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Pfizer has now significantly expanded its range: in addition to its own patented medicines, unlicensed medicines are now also to be sold without profit. These include many antibiotics, with which Pfizer wants to save around 1.5 million people a year from dying from bacterial infections in hospitals and community facilities. Newly developed drugs should also be included in the program from the start.

Pfizer’s project could provide up to 1.2 billion people with medicine

The program aims to benefit the 45 poorest countries in the world, including Afghanistan, Haiti, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal, Eritrea and Cambodia. The program thus has the potential to provide up to 1.2 billion people with medicine.

The program is criticized for the fact that pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer are often unable to reliably say how high the costs for research or marketing are for each drug and are therefore unable to work exactly at cost price. In addition, many costs are outsourced to the public society through research at universities.

Sources:,

Source: Stern

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