Channel 4 just shown a vicious documentary on Pfizer and it’s approach to selling its vaccine. I didn’t see it all so can’t give a comprehensive response, but it seemed pretty damning, also pretty naive. Pfizer are undoubtedly making huge gross profits from this product, like tens of billions, and are milking it for everything they can. They don’t want the pandemic to end.
But the product is good, they are a commercial concern, it’s not a popularity contest etc etc. AZ took the moral high road and have suffered for it. The state sponsored Russian and Chinese vaccines…well would you want one?
One of the criticisms was that the U.K. is paying more than any other country for the Pfizer product and that the arbitration mechanism built into the contract does not involve a British court. Strikes me this is a factor of bargaining power, and the fact that we wanted lots of doses very quickly.