Stop big pharma greed to save lives
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 670 Views |
![Dr Penninah Lutung](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://www.mmegi.bw/mmegi/uploads/images/2023/04/25/71487.jpg&w=800&q=72&f=jpg&t=1)
Dr Penninah Lutung
We have barely pulled out of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which big pharmaceutical companies once again insisted on putting profits before lives. According to Action Aid, Moderna, BioNTech, and Pfizer were reaping astronomical and unconscionable profits due to their monopolies of mRNA COVID vaccines, with the three corporations having earned more than $26 billion in revenue in the first half of 2021.
This was despite the fact that taxpayers were the primary funders of COVID-19 vaccine research, development, and production – the world owns that intellectual property, not the drug companies that continue to profit from the pandemic. African countries have been pressurising pharmaceutical companies to share their know-how and technology to increase local production and access to critical medicine in Africa and globally. There must be a paradigm shift away from viewing sharing technology with Africa as a charity or a threat to profitability.
The BDP as a party known to have ample resources has always held its primaries well in time, but this time around that was not the case. The first leg of the primaries was held last weekend, with the final leg being billed for the coming weekend. This time around, the BDP failed to shine in its primary elections. The elections were chaotic; most if not all polling stations didn't open at the specified time of 6am. Loyal BDP members braved the...