Pandemic Price Guide
It was widely reported this morning that Pfizer Pharmaceuticals is finding positive results in the Phase Two trials of a vaccine for Covid-19 protection.
The federal effort to secure an effective vaccine may not play out as promised, however. The nearly $2 billion dollars it placed on the table sounds formidable but may in fact be small change from the company’s point of view.
The final sentence in a report from today’s New York Times may suggest that receiving the vaccine may be a matter, as is all too often the case with our healthcare system, of who can afford it.
Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to rush a vaccine to market, has promised Pfizer $1.95 billion to deliver 100 million doses to the federal government, which will be given to Americans free of charge. But Jansen sought to distance the company from Operation Warp Speed and presidential politics, noting that the company did not take any federal money to help pay for research and development.
(Kathrin Jansen is head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer).
New York Times Digest, Nov. 10, 2020