Coronavirus, capitalism, and the cure business

The race is on to find a cure for coronavirus, with over forty different vaccines being tested all over the world. But medical experts warn it will be at least another 18 months until a working vaccine is ready.

This might sound like a long time, but it is pretty quick for a new drug. Pharmaceuticals must be tested in the laboratory and carefully trialled on volunteers before they are approved as safe and effective for the general population. The first human trials for a coronavirus vaccine just started last week in the USA.

The UK government has donated £210 million to finding a cure, and President Trump has promised a monopoly to a drug company working on a vaccine. As economies grind to a halt, the drug companies appear to be the only ones making any money. But are they exploiting a crisis and are we getting our money’s worth?

Bernie Sanders is not a fan of Big Pharma. At a recent rally, he called the drug companies “a bunch of crooks” who make us pay twice for our medicine. First, the government pays them for the research and then again to buy and use the vaccine. Sanders believes everyone has a right to the vaccine and he will make it free for all, if he becomes president.

But can we put a price tag on a cure for Covid-19? Our current methods of containment and lockdown are incredibly expensive and are already having serious economic and social consequences. And they only delay the spread of the disease. A vaccine to save lives and return life to normal is surely worth paying the big drug companies.

In fact, some critics argue that the problem is that companies can’t make enough money from vaccines. Big Pharma makes most of its profits treating common illnesses, like cancer and heart disease, in rich, developed countries.

Epidemics like the coronavirus often appear and disappear before slow and expensive trials can be completed. So, research into previous outbreaks was stopped before a vaccine could be developed, even though the research could have helped us develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus more quickly.

So, are the giant drug companies the solution not the problem?

Making a killing?

Some say it is good that companies make so much money from researching new medicines. They would not do it otherwise, and their medical research has given us the modern miracle of cheap drugs for every kind of ailment. With drug companies working overtime to find a vaccine that will save lives, how can we call them a problem and not the solution?

Others say we should be very worried about the vast amounts of money in the pharmaceutical industry. The coronavirus pandemic is a matter of global public health, and we cannot allow multinational companies to control the process or the price of a vaccine. Big Pharma has too much influence over politicians and this risks our money and our health.