Pharmaceutical giants shell out billions to shareholders amid vaccine apartheid
15:10 | 26/04/2021
Ahead of shareholder meetings for the giant pharmaceutical corporations, the Peopleâs Vaccine Alliance calculates that Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca have paid out $26 billion in dividends and stock buybacks to their shareholders in the past 12 months, which would be enough for at least 1.3 billion vaccines, equal to the population of Africa.
Pharmaceutical giants are growing fat on vaccines the world desperately needs
The shareholder meetings begin on April 22 with Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson, followed by Moderna and AstraZeneca in the coming weeks. Protests are expected outside the meetings in the US and UK while investors inside the meetings will be presenting resolutions to expand vaccine access. There is a growing backlash against the de facto privatisation of successful COVID-19 vaccines and pressure on the pharma firms to openly license the intellectual property and share the technology and know-how with qualified vaccine producers across the world.