South Africa features prominently in the FT’s piece on Pfizer, the US vaccine maker which deliberately and unashamedly set about extracting maximum profit from the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the section on SA explains (the type is in bold), local politicians initially kicked back against “lawyered-up” negotiators from the Big Pharma multinational. But as deaths and public pressure rose, they submitted to Pfizer’s onerous terms (including an unprecedented liability exclusion clause).
That movie was re-run all around the world. As a result, only Pfizer shareholders now have any warm feelings towards the company. To paraphrase Oxfam’s Winnie Byanyima, Pfizer could have saved the world, but chose to put profit ahead of that opportunity. While Pfizer’s bank accounts are bulging, there’s an obvious risk of its hardball approach coming back to bite one day.
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From an SA perspective, next time you hear ANC heavyweights railing against capitalism, it will be difficult to dismiss it as the raving of an economic illiterate. As you’ll read, Pfizer’s management and board decided early that the Covid-19 pandemic was the kind of profit-generating opportunity which only emerges once in a career. So, unlike the more altruistic approach of AstraZeneca and J&J, this American company is riding the money wave as hard as it possible can.
More to read today:
* Omicron Risks Infecting Vaccinated People but May Not Cause Them Severe Illness. Some scientists say the virus will likely remain vulnerable to immune cells; ‘Don’t freak out,’ says BioNTech co-founder
* Lesson One From the Omicron Drop: Markets Don’t Like Bad News. Expect prices to swing around as markets try to get ahead of the science and assess the binary risk of new lockdowns—or not.
* Tiger Woods Says Golf Career Will Never Fully Recover After Car Crash. The golf legend cast doubt on his return to competitive golf after the life-threatening wreck that seriously injured his leg in February
On the webinar front….
* If you missed yesterday’s update on the BizNews share portfolio, click here to access the recording.
And two interactive webinars for you today –
* Looking for some immune-boosting protection against Covid-19? Join Tim Modise at noon where he hosts the inventors of a home grown product and SA’s former Statistician-General who assessed the trials. Click here to register.
* And at 5pm this evening, I’ll host our business partners from OrbVest – New York-based CEO Martin Freeman and local director Justin Clarke. It’s an opportunity to learn why thousands of BN tribe members have co-invested with OrbVest into US medical property. Also, your last chance to apply $5 000 (or more) of your 2021 offshore discretionary allowance into this high yielding hard currency investment. Click here to register.
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