Activists urge 'Big Pharma' to be transparent on COVID-19 vaccine costs

FILE PHOTO: Small bottles labelled with"Vaccine" stickers stand near a medical syringe in front of displayed"Coronavirus COVID-19" words in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoGENEVA: Activists called on pharmaceutical companies on Thursday to be transparent about the costs and terms of providing COVID-19 vaccines, saying they must be available and affordable for all.

French drugmaker Sanofi and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday they would supply 200 million doses of their COVID-19 candidate vaccine to the global COVAX vaccine facility backed by the World Health Organization and the GAVI vaccine alliance.Medecins Sans Frontieres demanded the two companies provide details around price, supply and distribution of any vaccine proven safe and effective.

"Pharmaceutical corporations Sanofi and GSK must sell their vaccines at-cost and open their books to show the public exactly how much it costs to make the vaccine," said Kate Elder, senior vaccines policy adviser at MSF's Access Campaign. "There is no room for secrets during a pandemic and past experience tells us that we can’t take pharma at their word without data to back up their claims," she said in a statement.

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