Richard Meyer As I See It, Bad Pharma

Pharma still doesn’t understand transparency

As development towards a COVID-19 vaccine continue so do the number of people who have said they won’t get vaccinated. The only way to get people on board with a vaccination is complete transparency about the product yet both J&J and Pfizer remain silent.

Pausing clinical trials for any drug is normal when a participant gets sick. There has to be a complete investigation as to why the patient suffered ill effects including the possibility that he/she had a known or unknown health condition.

J&J’s refusal to release any information regarding a COVID-19 vaccination trial that J&J paused earlier this month comes on the heels of a recent and widely-touted joint pledge of prudence and caution on vaccine trial safety by nine drug companies, including J&J, working on COVID 19 vaccines.

In the meantime, Pfizer is seeking approval for their vaccination in November even though there hasn’t been any information on it released to HCP’s or the public.

“It’s troubling, to say the least, and I can’t recommend any vaccine to a patient until I know a hell of a lot more,” said one physician I talked to. Another told me “I haven’t heard one word on vaccination trials from ANY drug company and I do work for them”.

The question should be “why aren’t they releasing data?”. There are two possible answers. One, they are don’t know or two, they are massaging the data. In this era of mistrust which excuse do you think the public will buy?

Make no mistake about it. The company that gets approval for a COVID-19 vaccination is going to make a LOT of money even though the government already paid for the product.

In the meantime, the numbers of people who mistrust a COVID vaccination are sure to keep rising. Pharma is betting that, when a vaccination is approved, people will rush to get it but without widespread vaccinations, the vaccine is pretty useless.

Pharma still has not learned. They still feel that “patients need us more than we need them” and that the endgame is profits. The stock price of the company that gets approval for a vaccination is sure to pop overnight. The CEO will get a huge bonus but patients are left to fend for themselves and decide if a vaccination is safe.