The US pharmaceutical giant cashing in on a pandemic that has killed 3.2m people while failing to help the world’s poor is morally indefensible, and illustrates the corrupt nature of monopoly medicine.
As the New York Times reported, 
Pfizer generated hundreds of millions in profits in the first quarter of 2021, thanks to its successful 
Covid-19 
vaccine. What’s interesting about the company’s success, however, is that its 
vaccine is one of just two widely used that are produced on a for-profit basis – and the only one whose manufacturer is not reliant on it to stay afloat. 
Pfizer’s windfall this year is, in essence, a windfall for monopoly medicine.
Unlike its Western competitors 
Johnson & 
Johnson and 
AstraZeneca, 
Pfizer decided early to profit from its 
vaccine. That profit margin hasn’t been disclosed, but it was predicted that this would be in the high 20% range. That means that, of the $3.5 billion brought in by the 
vaccine this quarter, about $900m is pre-tax profit. 
Unlike Moderna, a competitor that uses similar 
vaccine technology to 
Pfizer’s, 
Pfizer is an extraordinarily profitable company already, making $9.6 billion in profits in 2020 before the 
vaccine had even had a serious impact. Moderna has no other products on the market, so turning a profit on its 
vaccine is crucial for its operation. Not so for 
Pfizer. 
Pfizer sells its 
vaccine sales at different rates. The United States, for example, pays $19.50 for each dose, while Israel has reportedly paid $30.The reason all this is morally justifiable, 
Pfizer has said repeatedly, is that it was never part of the US government’s Operation Warp Speed and therefore should be allowed to set its own prices. 
However, this is deceptive. 
BioNTech, the company that actually developed the 
vaccine, after which 
Pfizer basically slapped its label on it, received a $455 million grant from the German government and got around $6 billion in purchase commitments from the US and EU. Not only that, but the 
Pfizer vaccine is based on mRNA technology patented by the National Institutes of Health that was funded by US taxpayers. 
In a nutshell, 
Pfizer capitalized on a partnership with a then-obscure German biotech company that received German government grants to develop its 
vaccine based on US taxpayer-funded technology, and then received purchasing guarantees from rich governments that guaranteed billions of dollars in revenue. It managed to privatize all the profits while socializing all the risk in what was a textbook case of how corrupt Big Pharma is. 
But the scope of this monumental corruption really shines through when you consider that this is a once-in-several-lifetimes public health emergency that has killed millions of people. Governments around the world promised a warlike response to the 
Covid-19 pandemic and yet it’s mostly been just business as usual. 
As I mentioned in my previous piece for RT on 
Bill Gates, global capitalism has reinforced itself through the pandemic, with Big Pharma being no exception. Intellectual property (IP) laws, which have only been defended in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations by rich countries, are demonstrably a barrier to getting 
vaccine doses out – and everyone knows it. 
Even US President 
Joe Biden said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would suspend IP rights to make 
vaccines more affordable around the globe. 
“Absolutely, positively. This is the only humane thing in the world to do,” Biden said. (I’m sure the fact that 
Pfizer was among the companies that handed over a maximum $1 million donation to Biden’s inauguration had nothing to do with his about-face…)
But not only has IP been an issue, but even the general cost and logistics of transporting the 
Pfizer vaccine has proven a challenge for nations, especially poorer ones, that want to receive it. Yet, somehow, the 
Pfizer vaccine is emerging as the predominant 
Covid-19 
vaccine shipped by Western countries, while lower-cost, less-intensive 
vaccines are being discredited. 
Aside from the obvious fact that China’s 
vaccines or Russia’s Sputnik V are being refused for consideration, are being delayed for review by other countries, or are being conspiratorially attacked by Western media, there does seem to be some kind of bias in favor of 
Pfizer, even among Western 
vaccine-makers. 
Consider that Oxford University published a study on April 15 showing that the risk of portal vein thrombosis (a blood clot in the liver) appears to be 30 times higher with the mRNA 
vaccines made by Moderna and 
Pfizer (that is, the two for-profit 
vaccines) than with 
AstraZeneca’s. Consider also that the risk of cerebral vein thrombosis (a blood clot in the brain) appears to be quite similar with  both 
AstraZeneca (five in a million) and those mRNA 
vaccines (four in a million).  
So, while blood-clotting concerns have caused controversy and even the discontinuation of 
vaccines made by 
AstraZeneca and 
Johnson & 
Johnson, any mention of this from mRNA 
vaccines in the media has been pretty much nonexistent. That’s quite strange. 
Also, headlines trumpet all the time how highly effective 
Pfizer’s 
vaccine is, placing huge importance on the percentage of its effectiveness without adding context. As the Vox YouTube channel masterfully explained in a video posted in March, it’s extremely difficult to compare 
vaccines – especially as they’re being tested in different parts and at different times. 
Pfizer’s chief executive promised to ensure that poorer countries “have the same access as the rest of the world” to its 
vaccine. But as of last month, wealthy nations had secured more than 87% of the more than 700 million doses of 
Covid-19 
vaccines dispensed worldwide, while poorer countries had received only 0.2%, according to the World Health Organization.
Pfizer has pledged 40 million doses to 
Covax, the partnership aimed at supplying 
vaccines to poor countries. But, as the New York Times report points out, that’s less than 2% of the 2.5 billion doses it aims to produce this year.
Now, none of this is to say that 
Pfizer’s 
vaccine is not effective and you shouldn’t take it. I received the 
Pfizer vaccine and will get my second dose on Friday. The best 
vaccine is the one you have access to. But the problem is that 
Pfizer’s seems to be getting too much free exposure in the media, despite the fact it's expensive, difficult to transport, and held under IP protections, making it inaccessible to most people in the world right now. 
Pfizer has successfully maneuvered our corrupt system to rake in record profits with virtually no risk at all. It’s sad to say, but this happens all the time. However, right now, it’s only artificially prolonging a once-in-a-century pandemic that, I think most of us can agree, is destroying our lives. Let 
Pfizer’s success this year be a historic reminder of why capitalism and public health are totally incompatible.