Pfizer has already sold 82 per cent of its vaccine stocks to some of the world’s richest countries, analysis shows, raising concerns that people from poorer nations will be unable to access the life-saving doses.
The pharmaceutical giant and its German partner BioNTech intend to manufacture a total of 1.3 billion doses throughout 2021, yet the vast majority of these have been pre-ordered by the likes of the UK, Japan, the US and the European Union.
These countries, which have bought up hundreds of millions of doses between them, represent just 14 per cent of the global population.
The analysis was conducted by Global Justice Now, a health and social justice campaign group based in the UK, which warned that the lack of equitable access to the Pfizer vaccine – along with many other candidates in development – was endangering thousands of lives across the globe.