Public Citizen Calls Out Pfizer’s “Patent Wall” for COVID-19 Treatment

Public Citizen has released a statement accusing Pfizer of filing a barrage of patents for a key component of their COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid to limit competition worldwide. The non-profit advocacy organization’s statement comes after the drugmaker agreed to allow manufacturers in many lower-income countries to manufacture a generic version of nirmatrelvir, the component in question.

According to Endpoints News, “The Medicines Patent Pool and Pfizer struck an agreement to qualify generic manufacturers in 95 countries, many of which are classified as low- or lower-middle-income, to produce generic versions of Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral. But Public Citizen said the deal left out much of the world. Director Burcu Kilic said, in a call with Endpoints News Friday, that the agreement was largely a public relations move by the Big Pharma. The scope of the deal, while in theory provides equitable access, is actually a “chicken or the egg” scenario, he said, because many of the countries do not have ease of access to manufacture the drug.”

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(Source: Endpoints News, February 18^th, 2022)