Pfizer bullies governments worldwide in COVID-19 vaccine contracts: report

WASHINGTON -- U.S. multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation Pfizer has been bullying governments around the world in COVID-19 vaccine contracts, said a recent report.

"The contracts offer a rare glimpse into the power one pharmaceutical corporation has gained to silence governments, throttle supply, shift risk and maximize profits in the worst public health crisis in a century," said the report published in late October by Washington-based non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank Public Citizen.

Citing six examples, the report pointed out that Pfizer not only reserves the right to silence governments, tightly controls vaccine donations, and uses anyone's intellectual property it pleases largely without consequence, but also bypasses domestic legal processes by empowering private arbitrators to decide disputes in secret, enables itself to go after state assets, and enjoys unilateral authority for key decisions.

"Pfizer's dominance over sovereign countries poses fundamental challenges to the pandemic response," the report noted, adding the corporation's demands have been slowing purchase agreements and even pushing back the delivery schedule of vaccines.

"Public health should come first," it said, urging governments worldwide to push back.