US: No more free coronavirus vaccines and medicines

On August 17, foreign media reported that Ashish Jha, the White House’s new crown epidemic response coordinator, “said at an event sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce Foundation: The US government is considering stopping Purchase COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and testing kits, which will cost money in the future.

The program is understood to begin as early as this fall. By 2023, all COVID-19 products will be fully commercialized.

Lilly has already taken the lead in planning to sell bebtelovimab, a neutralizing antibody against Omicron mutants. The CEO of Eli Lilly said: As soon as the end of August, this neutralizing antibody will be ready for sale by the end of August. Will no longer be procured by the U.S. government, will be sold to the market.

Pfizer’s CEO also stated at this year’s interim results conference: The government requires Pfizer to supply the new crown vaccine at a low price, so the company’s profits will suffer a certain loss. Once sales are released, Pfizer’s New crown vaccine and treatment drug revenue will rise.

The U.S. has reportedly spent billions of dollars procuring COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and diagnostics, the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination rate is approaching 70%, and the current COVID-19 pandemic The number of infections and deaths caused has been far below the peak level, and US officials believe that it should no longer continue to spend money to purchase and provide vaccines and medicines to the people for free.

In June of this year, the US FDA asked two companies, Moderna and Pfizer, to speed up the production of new vaccines against Omicron to prevent the epidemic from rebounding in autumn and winter. According to Ashish Jha, Pfizer and Moderna are also currently submitting data to the CDC for review.

This batch of Omicron’s new vaccine will be available in the United States in September, can the American people still get it for free? It’s not clear yet.

Writing|Jia Ting

Editing|Jiang Yun

Operations|Valley

Illustration | Visual China

#COVID-19vacc##Pfizer##COVID-19#