Today I Sent This Letter To Have a Candid Conversation With Our Colleagues About the Drivers of COVID-19 Access andAvailability



今天，我发送了这封信，与我的同事们就获取COVID-19的动力与可行性进行坦率的对话



 

Albert Bourla



Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer



 



Dear Colleagues,



亲爱的同事们，



 



The recent announcement that the United States Trade Representative will discuss

options to waive some COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property (IP) rights has created

some confusion to the world. HasPfizer done enough to ensure fair and equitable distribution of our COVID-19vaccine? Is the proposed waiver going to bring solutions or create moreproblems? I am writing to you today to discuss these questions.



最近，美国贸易代表宣布将讨论放弃某些COVID-19疫苗知识产权的可能性，这给世界造成了一些混乱。辉瑞是否为确保COVID-19疫苗的公平和公正分配做了足够的工作？提议的豁免是带来解决方案还是制造更多问题？我今天写信给你们讨论这些问题。



 



Fair and equitable distribution was ourNorth Star from day one. In order to ensure that every country can have accessto our COVID-19 vaccine two conditions had to be met: a price that anyone canafford and reliable manufacturing of enough vaccine for all.



 



公平和公正的分配是我们从第一天开始便坚持的信念。为了确保每个国家都能获得我们的COVID-19疫苗，两个前提条件必须满足：一个任何人都能负担得起的价格，以及为所有人提供足够数量且安全可靠生产的疫苗。



 



The first condition was met in the early days. Back in June of 2020 we decided to offer our vaccine through tiered pricing. The wealthier nations would have to pay in the range of about the cost of a takeaway meal and would offer it to their citizens for free. The middle-income countries were offered doses at roughly half that price and the low-income countries were offered doses at cost. Many of the poorest communities will receive their doses through donation. Equity doesn’t mean we give everyone the same. Equity means we give more to those that need more.



第一个条件在早些时候就已得到满足。早在2020年6月，我们决定通过分级定价的方式提供疫苗。较富裕的国家将不得不支付最昂贵的费用，并免费提供给本国公民。中等收入国家以大约一半的价格获得疫苗，而低收入国家则以成本价获得。许多最贫穷的社区将通过捐赠获得疫苗。公平并不意味着我们给每个人同样的东西或同样的待遇。公平意味着我们给那些更需要的人更多的优待。



 



Meeting the second condition was much more challenging but we are getting there with remarkable speed. Thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of our scientists, engineers and skilled workers, and multibillion dollars of Pfizer investment, we announced that we will provide to the world more than 2.5 billion doses in 2021. In fact, our internal target is 3 billion doses, so we feel quite comfortable about our commitment. Achieving 3 billion doses this year means, by extrapolation, 4 billion doses in 2022. These doses are not for the rich or poor, not for the north or south. These are doses for ALL. We have concluded agreements to supply 116 countries and we are currently in advanced negotiations with many more for a total of approximately 2.7 billion doses in 2021. Upon finalization of all agreements, we expect that 40% of them, or more than 1 billion doses, will go to middle- and low-income countries in 2021.



满足第二个条件更具挑战性，但我们正以惊人的速度去完成它。由于我们的科学家、工程师和技术工人的聪明才智和辛勤工作，以及辉瑞数十亿美元的投资，我们宣布到2021年将向世界提供超过25亿剂。事实上，我们的内部目标是30亿剂，所以我们对我们的承诺感到骄傲。今年达到30亿剂意味着，以此类推的话，2022年将达到40亿剂。这些剂量不是为富人或穷人，也不是为北方或南方。这些疫苗是为了全球所有人。我们已经缔结了向116个国家供应的协定，我们目前正在与更多国家进行进一步谈判，争取在2021年总共提供约27亿剂疫苗。在完成所有协定后，我们预计到2021年，其中40%或超过10亿剂将用于中低收入国家。



 



This clearly poses another question. Until today, we have shipped approximately 450 million doses and the balance is more favorable to high income countries. Why is that? When we developed our tiered pricing policy, we reached out to all nations asking them to place orders so we could allocate doses for them. In reality, the high-income countries reserved most of the doses. I became personally concerned with that and I reached out to many heads of middle/low-income countries by letter, phone and even text to urge them to reserve doses because the supply was limited. However, most of them decided to place orders with other vaccine makers either because mRNA technology was untested at that time or because they were offered local production options. Some didn’t even approve our vaccine. Unfortunately, other vaccine producers were not able to meet their supply commitments for varying technical reasons. Most of the countries that did not choose us initially, came back and thanks to our phenomenal supply ramp up, 

we have started signing supply agreements with them. We expect the supply balance to weigh in their favor in the second half of 2021, and to have virtually enough supply for all in 2022.



这显然提出了另一个问题。直到今天，我们已经运送了大约4.5亿剂，而从剩下的疫苗分配数来看，更有利于高收入国家。为什么？当我们制定分级定价政策时，我们联系了所有国家，要求他们下订单，以便我们可以为他们分配剂量。实际上，高收入国家预订了大部分剂量。我个人已经关注此事，我通过信件、电话甚至短信联系了许多中低收入国家的领导人，敦促他们预定剂量，因为供应有限。然而，他们中的大多数决定与其他疫苗制造商下订单。要么是因为当时没有测试mRNA技术，要么是因为他们得到了当地的生产选择。有些人甚至不批准我们的疫苗。不幸的是，由于不同的技术原因，其他疫苗生产商未能履行其供应承诺。大多数最初没有选择我们的国家都回来了。谢天谢地，由于我们的供应能力也开始猛增，我们已经开始与他们签署供应协议。我们预计，2021年下半年的供应量将对他们有利，2022年几乎将有足够的供应。



 



Last week, I had the opportunity to provide these facts to the US Trade Representative and explain why the suggested waiver of IP rights could only derail this progress. Which brings me to the second question. Is the proposed waiver going to improve the supply situation or create more problems? And my answer is categorically the latter.



上周，我有机会向美国贸易代表提供这些事实，并解释为什么建议放弃知识产权只会破坏这一进展。这就引来第二个问题。提议的豁免是改善供应情况还是制造更多问题？我的回答是明确的后者。



When we created our vaccine there was no manufacturing production of any mRNA vaccine or medicine anywhere in the world. We had to create manufacturing infrastructure from scratch. With 172 years of quality manufacturing tradition, substantial deployment of capital, and more importantly, an army of highly skilled scientists, engineers and manufacturing workers, we developed in record time the most efficient manufacturing machine of a life-saving vaccine that the world has ever seen. Currently, infrastructure is not the bottleneck for us manufacturing faster. The restriction is the scarcity of highly specialized raw materials needed to produce our vaccine. These 280 different materials or components are produced by many suppliers in 19 different countries. Many of them needed our substantial support (technical and financial) to ramp up their production.Right now, virtually every single gram of raw material produced is shipped immediately into our manufacturing facilities and is converted immediately and 

reliably to vaccines that are shipped immediately around the world (91 countries to date.) The proposed waiver for COVID-19 vaccines, threatens to disrupt the flow of raw materials. It will unleash a scramble for the critical inputs we require in order to make a safe and effective vaccine. Entities with little or no experience in manufacturing vaccines are likely to chase the very raw materials we require to scale our production, putting the safety and security of all at risk.



当我们制造疫苗时，世界上任何地方都没有生产过任何mRNA疫苗或药物。我们必须从零开始创建制造基础设施。我们拥有172年的优质制造传统，大量资本投入，更重要的是，我们拥有一支由高技能科学家、工程师和制造工人组成的大军，我们以创纪录的时间研制出了世界上最高效的救命疫苗制造机器。目前，基础设施并不是我们加快制造速度的瓶颈。限制产量的是生产疫苗所需的高度专业化原材料的稀缺。这 280 种不同的材料或部件由 19 个不同国家的许多供应商生产。他们中的许多人需要我们大量的支持（技术和财政）来增加他们的生产。现在，几乎每克生产的原材料都立即运到我们的制造工厂，并立即可靠地立即运往世界各地（迄今已有91个国家）的疫苗。拟议放弃COVID-19疫苗知识产权的行为，有可能扰乱原材料的流动。它将引发对目前我们生产安全和有效疫苗的关键材料的争夺。在生产疫苗方面经验很少或根本没有经验的实体可能会浪费我们扩大生产规模所需的原材料，从而危及所有人的安全。



 



 And I would like to make a final point. I worry that waiving of patent protection will disincentivize anyone else from taking a big risk. We deployed $2 billion before we knew whether we could successfully develop a vaccine because we understood what was at stake. Just recently, I authorized spending an additional $600 million on COVID-19 research and development that will bring our total spend for R&D in 2021 to more than $10 billion . The recent rhetoric will not discourage us from continuing investing in science. But I am not sure if the same is true for the thousands of small biotech innovators that are totally dependent on accessing capital from investors who invest only on the premise that their intellectual property will be protected.



我想提出最后一点。我担心放弃专利保护会抑制其他企业或个体冒风险创新的意愿。我们花费了20亿美元，才知道我们能否成功开发疫苗，因为我们在研发中才了解关键性难题。就在最近，我授权在COVID-19研发上再投入6亿美元，这将使我们在2021年的研发总支出超过100 亿美元。最近的言辞不会阻止我们继续投资于科学。但我不确定成千上万的小型生物技术创新者是否也是如此，他们完全依赖投资者获得资本，而投资者只有在知识产权得到保护的前提下进行投资。



 



Ending the pandemic and vaccinating the world is a massive, but achievable undertaking. We remain fully focused on getting high-quality, safe and effective vaccines to patients all over theworld as quickly as possible and to putting an end to this deadly pandemic. Once again, we will not let politics stand in our way and we will continuedoing what we do best – creating breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.



结束这一流行病和给世界接种疫苗是一项艰巨但可以实现的任务。我们仍然全神贯注于尽快向全世界的病人提供高质量、安全和有效的疫苗，并结束这一致命的流行病。再一次重申，我们不会让政治阻碍我们前进，我们将继续做我们最擅长做的事情——通过创新与突破改变病人的生活质量。



【Albert Bourla签名】