Pfizer share falls over 3% after US agrees to support patent waivers on Covid vaccines

Pfizer Ltd share fell over 3% on Thursday after the US administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic.

Pfizer share fell 3.24% to Rs 5,268.55  against previous close of Rs 5,444.95  on BSE. Pfizer share is trading higher than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.

The pharma share has gained 12.21% in one year and risen 4.77% since the beginning of this year. Market cap of the firm fell to Rs 24,530 crore on BSE. The latest move by the US comes after demand for removal of patents related to Covid vaccines had been coming from various governments.

In March this year, the head of the World Health Organization called for vaccines rights to be waived until the end of the coronavirus pandemic so that vaccine supplies can be dramatically increased, saying these unprecedented times warrant the move. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries with their own vaccine capacity should start waiving intellectual property rights as provided in special emergency provisions from the World Trade Organization.

These provisions are there for use in emergencies, Tedros said.

WTO calls for urgency in Covid-19 response; members await revised IP waiver proposal from India, South Africa

In October last year, India and South Africa have requested the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive off certain key provisions under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to speed up the prevention, containment and treatment efforts against COVID-19 pandemic.

Pfizer has offered a not-for-profit price for its vaccine for the government immunisation programme in India.

Currently, Pfizer is discussing with the Indian government an expedited approval pathway to make Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available for use in the country.