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Vaccines

Investors Must Use Influence to Ensure Fair Access to COVID-19 Vaccines

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Amnesty International has called on institutional investors to use their influence to ensure that supplies of urgently needed life-saving vaccines reach low- and lower-middle-income countries. The organization has criticized pharmaceutical companies for monopolizing technology, blocking and lobbying against the sharing of intellectual property, charging high prices for vaccines, and prioritizing supplies to wealthy countries. As the World Health Organization's global target of a 70% vaccination rate in every country by July 2022 is on course to be missed by a significant margin, Amnesty International is urging investors to demand that vaccine manufacturers meet their human rights responsibilities.

Key Takeaways:

  • Amnesty International has called on institutional investors to use their influence to ensure fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, criticising pharmaceutical companies for monopolizing technology and prioritizing supplies to wealthy countries.
  • The organization is urging investors to demand that vaccine manufacturers meet their human rights responsibilities, including by questioning each company's board and supporting shareholder resolutions.
  • Institutional investors have reaped rich rewards from the profiteering and short-sightedness of vaccine manufacturers, but are duty-bound to ensure that their money does not contribute to human rights abuses.
  • Amnesty International is calling on investors to conduct comprehensive human rights due diligence on their investments, including by monitoring the impacts of the companies' COVID-19 vaccine allocation policies.
  • The organization is also urging investors to take immediate action to prevent adverse impacts, mitigate risks, and remedy any harm identified.
  • According to Our World in Data, as of 25 April 2022, 65.1% of the world's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but only 15.2% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
  • Amnesty International is calling on investors to vote in favor of the shareholder resolution tabled by Oxfam America, which calls for the commissioning of shareholder reports on the transfer of COVID-19 vaccine technology that would enable manufacturers in low- and lower-middle-income countries to produce vaccines.

Statistics:

  • As of 25 April 2022, 65.1% of the world's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Only 15.2% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
  • In 2021, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna projected revenues of up to $54 billion, yet supplied less than 2% of their vaccines to low-income countries.
  • Johnson & Johnson's record on distribution was better, with 50% of their stock reaching low- and lower-middle-income countries, although many of these doses were provided as "donations" from upper-income countries, not as part of sales agreements.
  • The total investments in the vaccine providers owned or managed by the ten financial institutions amounts to more than $250 billion.

Sources:

  • Amnesty International -- Investors in companies manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines must use their influence to ensure that supplies of urgently needed life-saving vaccines reach low- and lower-middle-income countries, Amnesty International said today ahead of the Annual General Meetings (AGM) of Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer on 28 April and AstraZeneca on 29 April.
  • Our World in Data, as of 25 April 2022, 65.1% of the world's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but only 15.2% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
  • Mark Dummett, Head of Amnesty International's Business and Human Rights team, who stated that pharmaceutical companies have human rights responsibilities yet continue to play a pivotal role in the scandalously unequal distribution of vaccines around the world.
  • Oxfam America, which has tabled a shareholder resolution calling for the commissioning of shareholder reports on the transfer of COVID-19 vaccine technology that would enable manufacturers in low- and lower-middle-income countries to produce vaccines.

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