Big Pharma slammed for executive payouts that nearly matched R&D budget

Twenty of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies made payouts to their executives and shareholders that almost equaled the money they spent on research and development between 2020 and 2022, according to a new analysis that the People’s Vaccine Alliance released ahead of this week’s World Health Summit in Berlin.
At the same time, pharmaceutical companies and allied governments maintain that they cannot allow for waivers on the intellectual property and trade secrets for new vaccines and therapeutics during future pandemics because it will discourage innovation.
Activists argue that with profits large enough to afford these levels of payouts, which they estimate at $1 million every five minutes, there is room for more flexibility around IP, which they believe could ultimately spur broader production and accessibility in a future pandemic. They are hoping the figures will impact ongoing debates within the World Health Organization over a global pandemic treaty.