While the world was plunged into a time of economic instability and panic during the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer made out like bandits and continue to reap the astonishing profits of their ineffective COVID-19 treatments. Ironically, part of what makes the treatments so profitable is the fact that they don’t do what they’re supposed to, which is prevent and effectively treat COVID-19.
In the case of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot, you can still get the disease once you’ve been injected and boosted, and may still transmit the disease to others as well. When asked when it first came out whether Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot would protect against transmission of COVID-19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration explained, “While it is hoped this will be the case, the scientific community does not yet know if the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine will reduce such transmission.”1
So, first, Pfizer profits from the shots. Next, when they don’t work to prevent infection, Pfizer makes more money by selling pills to treat the infection. Pfizer’s Paxlovid was granted emergency use authorization to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in December 2021.2 The drug consists of nirmatrelvir tablets — the antiviral component — and ritonavir tablets, which are intended to slow the breakdown of nirmatrelvir.3
Much like their COVID-19 shots, the drug doesn’t work as most people would assume, as many people experience a rebound of COVID-19 after taking the medication. This means multiple courses of the drug are often necessary — which is bad news for the public but great news for Pfizer and its shareholders.
Pfizer ‘Won the Pandemic’
An article published by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) details how Pfizer essentially “won” the COVID-19 pandemic, coming out of the fog with not only soaring revenue but disturbing influence over public health policy:5
“The grinding two-plus years of the pandemic have yielded outsize benefits for one company — Pfizer — making it both highly influential and hugely profitable as covid-19 continues to infect tens of thousands of people and kill hundreds each day.
Its success in developing covid medicines has given the drugmaker unusual weight in determining U.S. health policy. Based on internal research, the company’s executives have frequently announced the next stage in the fight against the pandemic before government officials have had time to study the issue, annoying many experts in the medical field and leaving some patients unsure whom to trust.”
In 2020, Pfizer’s biggest money makers were Ibrance, a cancer drug, a pneumonia vaccine and Lyrica, a fibromyalgia treatment. By 2021, it had just about doubled its 2020 revenue, bringing in $81.3 billion, largely due to its COVID-19 shot.
“Now its mRNA vaccine holds 70% of the U.S. and European markets,” the KFF article notes. “And its antiviral Paxlovid is the pill of choice to treat early symptoms of COVID. This year, the company expects to rake in more than $50 billion in global revenue from the two medications alone.”6 This, despite the fact that “Paxlovid’s value to vaccinated patients isn’t yet clear, and Pfizer’s COVID vaccine doesn’t entirely prevent infections.”7
Repeated Boosters, Drug Treatments ‘Gold for Investors’
In June 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it, in partnership with the Department of Defense, agreed to purchase another 105 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot — for $3.2 billion.8
The contract is intended to supply shots for a coming fall injection campaign and includes options to purchase up to 300 million doses. The decision came after a June 28 meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which recommended that an Omicron-specific component be included in COVID-19 booster shots in the U.S.9
The shots, which include both adult and pediatric doses, cost more than $30 per dose, on average, which is just slightly more than a 50% increase from the $19.50 per dose rate in the U.S. government’s initial contract with Pfizer.10 It’s the U.S. public that stands to lose in this deal, as they’re inundated with a new push to get injected with yet another COVID-19 shot, despite their continued failures.
Current COVID-19 booster shots lose effectiveness rapidly, with protection plummeting by the fourth month, post-shot.11 The eye-raising data, presented by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, follows the same dismal pattern of effectiveness displayed by the primary mRNA COVID-19 shot series, whose effectiveness also wanes in a matter of months.
Pfizer claims that its new booster candidates will work better than its past versions. One option being considered targets only the Omicron variant, while the other option targets the strain in the original shot along with the Omicron variant.12 Two doses — one including 30 mcg of mRNA and one including 60 mcg — were also tested, despite earlier safety concerns with a higher dose shot.13
While Pfizer cited strong antibody responses from the retooled boosters, the booster shot studies do not reveal whether the shots prevent COVID-19 cases or how long they are effective.14 VRBPAC voted 19-2 in favor of recommending booster shots that are Omicron-specific, but the FDA will ultimately decide what formulation will be in the “winning” shot.
Ultimately, the prospect of repeated boosters is exactly what Pfizer’s investors are hoping for. According to KFF:15
“[W]hile patients may recoil at the need for repeated injections — two boosters are now recommended for people 50 and older — the requirement is gold for investors. ‘Hopefully, we could be giving it annually and maybe for some groups that are high-risk more often,’ CEO Albert Bourla told investors this year. ‘Then you have the treatment [Paxlovid] that will, let’s say, resolve the issues of those that are getting the disease.’”
Pfizer’s COVID-19 Drug May Require Multiple Courses
While Pfizer is ushering in record profits, its antiviral Paxlovid doesn’t always work to eliminate COVID-19 infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning to health care providers and public health departments about the potential for COVID-19 rebound after Paxlovid treatment.16
Fauci is among those who experienced a return of COVID-19 symptoms after taking Paxlovid, with symptoms worse than they were the first time. He then took a second course of the drug.17 Dore states that he also had COVID-19 rebound after taking Paxlovid. In the CDC’s health advisory regarding COVID-19 rebound after Paxlovid treatment it’s stated:18
“Recent case reports document that some patients with normal immune response who have completed a 5-day course of Paxlovid for laboratory-confirmed infection and have recovered can experience recurrent illness 2 to 8 days later, including patients who have been vaccinated and/or boosted …
These cases of COVID-19 rebound had negative test results after Paxlovid treatment and had subsequent positive viral antigen and/or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing.”
Adding insult to injury, people who take Paxlovid can still transmit COVID-19 to others, even if they’re asymptomatic, according to a preprint study.19 Study author Dr. Michael Charness of the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Boston told CNN, “People who experience rebound are at risk of transmitting to other people, even though they’re outside what people accept as the usual window for being able to transmit.”20
How Treatment Failures Become a Success
Despite the concerns, the U.S. government agreed to buy 20 million five-day courses of Paxlovid, at a cost of $530 each.21 Pfizer also noted that prices of both Paxlovid and its COVID-19 shots would increase “to reflect the cutting-edge technology” when the pandemic ends.22
Still, Pfizer doesn’t view COVID-19 rebound after Paxlovid treatment as a failure; in their eyes, it’s a success, because the more courses needed, the more money they make. KFF noted:23
“During a recent investor call, a Pfizer official could spin the recent reports that the virus can hide from Paxlovid into good news, predicting that, as with the vaccine, patients may need multiple courses.
Immunocompromised patients ‘may carry this virus for a very, very long time,’ Dr. Mikael Dolsten said in the investor call. ‘And we see that area as a real new opportunity growth area for Paxlovid to do very well, where you may need to take multiple courses.’”
Meanwhile, plans for ongoing boosters are being made, despite a lack of evidence for their use. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who is notoriously pro-vaccine, was one of the two people who voted against the VRBPAC’s booster recommendation, because he didn’t agree with the variant being included and believed there was a dearth of data regarding the level at which the body’s immune response to antibodies corresponds to sound protection.24
“Where’s the evidence you are at risk of serious disease when confronted with COVID if you are vaccinated and under 50?” Offit said in September 2021. Analyst Evan Seigerman with BMO Capital Markets also questioned during an investor call whether health officials are “kind of walking blindly into recommending boosters.” Offit went further, stating, “We’re being pushed along. The pharmaceutical companies are acting like public health agencies.”25
With billions of dollars at stake, however, Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies have all the incentive they need to keep churning out more COVID-19 drugs and boosters, regardless of how effective they end up being, as they profit even more when repeated shots and medication courses are needed.
Originally published September 06, 2022, on Mercola.com