WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Big Pharma is working overtime to sell the story that drug corporations saved us from COVID-19 by developing new vaccines, Patients For Affordable Drugs released a new video and fact sheet this week explaining the mRNA vaccines’ true origin story. The truth is the federal government invested billions of dollars to make the vaccines a reality. Taxpayers funded years of research into vaccine technology prior to the pandemic and invested billions more in drug companies to develop, manufacture, and purchase the mRNA vaccines. The new animated video tells the origin story in under two minutes, and the accompanying fact sheet digs into exactly how Americans and their government saved the day while Big Pharma made billions.
“Drug corporations avoided investment in vaccine research for years because it was risky and didn’t have the profit potential they were after. But when COVID-19 hit with the promise of a global market, they were quick to take advantage of government-funded technologies, support for clinical trials and manufacturing, and purchase agreements. And they did their jobs,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “Now they want to cast themselves as our saviors while they break sales records on the vaccines and executives cash in and become billionaires. The true story is that Americans have themselves and their government to thank for the vaccines.”
The video is released as Congress continues to consider the Build Back Better Act, which includes prescription drug price reforms that will lower prices, premiums, and out-of-pocket costs for patients and all Americans.
“The moral of the story? Pharma did its job, but it didn’t save us,” the narrator says in the new animated video, titled The True Story Of Covid Vaccines: Thank You Taxpayers. “We taxpayers saved ourselves.”
Watch the full video here and read the transcript below. |
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The True Story Of Covid Vaccines:
Titled: Thank You Taxpayers
The story begins years ago, when very few drug companies were investing in vaccine research. Back then, vaccines were risky and not profitable enough for drug corporations.
But government officials and scientists knew a viral pandemic would one day come. So they worked hard to support research for new vaccine technologies like mRNA, spending billions well before the pandemic hit.
It paid off. In January of 2020, when COVID-19 came to America, the mRNA technology was ready for companies like Moderna and Pfizer to run with.
Using billions in government support, they moved quickly to develop, test, and produce new mRNA vaccines.
The drug companies took bows while their profits soared. Within months of introducing the vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna raised prices and nine vaccine executives became billionaires.
But who really paid for this vaccine miracle? Well, taxpayers, of course!
Taxpayers de-risked the whole process. In addition to the pre-pandemic research, the federal government spent over $19 billion to support clinical trials, build production capacity, and then to buy the vaccines from the companies — enough to vaccinate every American for free.
The moral of the story? Pharma did its job, but it didn’t save us. We taxpayers saved ourselves. |
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