J&J, Pfizer and Moderna to face shareholder votes on vaccine pricing strategy, manufacturing tech sharing

 Throughout the global push to produce COVID-19 vaccines, pharma companies have frequently come under fire for unequal access to their shots. Oxfam, in a bid to force better access, has scored a series of wins in its effort to exact pricing and intellectual property information from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna.

At J&J's upcoming annual meeting, shareholders will have a chance to vote on an Oxfam proposal to force the company to release its COVID-19 vaccine pricing strategy. Oxfam previously asked J&J to share the information considering the drugmaker received substantial funding assistance from the U.S. government while it was developing the shot. During the company's shareholder meeting last year, 32% of J&J's shareholders voted for a similar resolution, Oxfam notes.

Meanwhile, at Moderna and Pfizer, shareholders will vote on whether the companies should study the feasibility of sharing vaccine technology to help increase global production. This has been a hot issue in recent months as many of the world's mRNA shots have gone to developed countries, while low- and middle-income countries were forced to wait for donations.

After Oxfam filed the shareholder resolutions late last year, the companies asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow them to omit the proposals from their annual meeting materials. 

On Thursday, Feb. 24, an Oxfam representative said "all three resolutions (J&J, Pfizer, and Moderna) survived SEC appeals and are moving forward."

In rejecting Moderna's request, SEC said the proposal "transcends ordinary business matters and does not seek to micromanage the company." As for J&J, the SEC disagreed with the drugmaker that its public disclosures "substantially implement the proposal."

The vaccine heavyweights have come under fire from a range of global groups amid the COVID-19 immunization drive that started last year. Last March, as it became clear there'd be a serious supply shortfall in developing countries, calls to break vaccine patents began to gather steam. In May 2021, the Biden administration backed a proposal at the World Trade Organization to suspend intellectual property protections for COVID shots so that companies around the world could begin to pump out their own doses.

The move angered the industry, which has argued that established vaccine players are in the best position to quickly scale up production of pandemic vaccines. Further, companies have argued that suspending patent rights will spur a global fight for critical raw materials, hurting output. 

Meanwhile, COVID vaccine sales have been adding up in a big way, especially at Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer reported $36.8 billion in 2021 COVID-19 vaccine sales, while Moderna's shot pulled in $17.7 billion last year.

After Pfizer reported its earnings earlier this month, Oxfam's senior manager of private sector advocacy Robbie Silverman responded that the results are "clear evidence of how the company has used its monopoly to enrich its shareholders at the expense of almost half the world’s population, who still have no access to lifesaving vaccines.

"It is obscene that we have allowed pharmaceutical companies to put their profits before the good of humanity as the pandemic drags on," he added. "No corporations should decide who lives and who dies."

As for J&J, the company's COVID shot generated $2.39 billion in 2021. In the U.S., the shot faced an early setback when authorities briefly paused its use to investigate rare blood clots. Afterward, the vaccine never really gained traction to keep up with its mRNA rivals.

In all of last year, the industry churned out an estimated 12 billion doses.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/johnson-johnson-moderna-set-to-face-shareholder-votes-vaccine-pricing-strategy-manufacturing