By Lucy Caulkett-
German pharmaceutical maker BioNTech, which developed the first widely used coronavirus vaccine with Pfizer has experienced a phenomenal surge in its profits for the second quarter of 2021.
The Mainz-based company announced its net profit of almost 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) between April and June, which boosted profits to over 3.9 billion euros, compared with a net loss of almost 142 million euros in the first six months of 2020.
The husband and wife medical doctor founders of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci became multibillionaires last year, when the potential of the vaccine and the deal with Pfizer prompted the shares to surge.
The company has said the windfall from its MRNA-based coronavirus vaccine will help it to develop drugs against cancer and other diseases. There has been wide speculation in some circles that the profits generated from the vaccine roll out internationally are also being hugely benefited by some politicians and higly placed figures in various fields.
Some of the biggest winners of the global vaccine roll out has been Moderna and Pfizer – two very different US pharma firms charging over $30 per person for the protection of their two-dose vaccines.
Moderna is relatively new on the scene, and was founded in 2010 years, with under 1,000 staff, compared with Pfizer, which is almost 200 years old and made a net profit of $9.6bn last year, employing close to 80,000 staff.
There is a clear need for the growth of profits to be monitored and compared with the long term benefits of the vaccination programme in terms of its effectiveness in both preventing those jabbed from catching Covid-19 and protecting those who catch it after being vaccinated from being hospitalized.
Another vaccine, the Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine, was developed with Germany’s BioNTech, based on re-engineered messenger RNA – the molecule that sends genetic instructions from DNA to a cell’s protein-making machinery
It was first to receive approval and has to be stored at ultra-low temperatures (-70C) and costs $39 (£28) for two doses in the US and about $30 in the EU.
World governments have ordered about 780m shots, including the US (200m doses for $3.9bn) and the EU commission (300m), while 40m doses will go to lower-income nations via the Covax facility.
The vaccine produced by the US biotech firm, based in Massachusetts, must be stored at freezer temperature (-20C). The UK has ordered 17m doses, the EU bought 310m with an option for a further 150m in 2022, while the US government ordered 300m shots. Japan purchased 50m shots. Moderna charges $30 for the required two shots in the US and $36 in the EU.
Hailed
The vaccination programme has been hailed as the reason for the drop in cases in the Uk, while Iran, which has had just 4% of its population vaccinated has reported 588 new fatalities, surpassing the previous day’s record by nearly four dozen.
Another 40,800 new virus cases were recorded in Iran, with more than 6,500 people in critical condition on Monday, according to reports.
The pandemic has reportedly killed more than 94,000 people in Iran, overwhelming hospitals in major cities as mass vaccination remains far off. Roughly 4% of Iran’s more than 80 million people have been fully vaccinated.
Over 30 local officials have been fired or received other punishments for shortcomings in handling China’s latest virus surge.
Among the officials fired for failing to fully implement anti-pandemic measures were a vice mayor, heads of city districts and health commissions, and staff from hospital management, airport and tourism departments.
Surge In China Cases
A surge in the spread of the delta variant in China has raised the call for more of its citizens to be vaccinated. China’s National Health Commission on Monday reported 94 new cases of domestic transmission recorded over the previous 24 hours. Of those, 41 were in the central province of Henan, which has been slammed by deadly flooding in recent weeks.
Another 38 cases were reported in Yangzhou, a neighboring city to Nanjing, where China’s widest outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic was traced. The highly contagious delta variant spread among Nanjing airport workers and has since spread from tropical Hainan province in the south to Inner Mongolia in the far north.
China has administered more than 1.7 billion doses of vaccine domestically, but has not revealed how many of its 1.4 billion people are now fully protected. China’s vaccines are administered in one-, two- or three-dose regimens, making it likely for further doses to be requested if the delta variant mutates amid the slow uptake of vaccinations in the country, according to sources in China.
Chinese authorities have resumed travel restrictions, locked down communities and sealed off the entire city of Zhangjiajie, with a population of 1.5 million.
The push for further vaccinations is likely to increase profits even more, making it also important for the push for more vaccine uptake not to be driven by profits in order not to corrupt the process.