Big Business: Vaccine Profits Spawn Nine New Billionaires

Paris: While millions are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 globally, vaccine makers are earning billions thanks to their “monopoly control” on the technology.

According to a campaign group, profits from COVID vaccines have helped at least nine people become billionaires.

“Between them, the nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion, which enough to fully vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times,” news agency AFP quoted a statement by The People’s Vaccine Alliance.

The Alliance, which is a network of organisations and activists campaigning for an end to property rights and patents for inoculations, said the figures were based on the Forbes Rich List data.

“These billionaires are the human face of the huge profits many pharmaceutical corporations are making from the monopoly they hold on these vaccines,” said Anna Marriott from charity organisation Oxfam, which is part of the alliance.

In addition to the new mega-rich, eight existing billionaires have seen their combined wealth increase by $32.2 billion thanks to the vaccine rollout, the Alliance added.

Topping the list of new vaccine billionaires are the CEO of Moderna Stephane Bancel and his BioNTech counterpart Ugur Sahin.

Three other neo-billionaires are co-founders of the Chinese vaccine company CanSino Biologics.

The Alliance statement was released a day ahead of the G20 Global Health Summit on Friday. The summit comes amid growing calls to temporarily remove intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines.

Proponents say doing so would boost production in developing countries and address the dramatic inequity in access.