VOA健康报道--辉瑞将以低价向贫困国家销售部分疫苗和药品

Pfizer to Sell Low-Cost Drugs to Poor Countries

The drug company Pfizer will make all of its patented medicines available at a not-for-profit price to 45 of the poorest countries.

The company announced the effort at the recent World Economic Forum¹ in Davos, Switzerland. Pfizer is calling it "An Accord for a Healthier World." It said new medicines and vaccines³ would be added to the list at not-for-profit prices when they are launched.

The drugs include COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid and breast cancer drug Ibrance, the drugmaker said on Wednesday.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it can take four to seven years or longer for new treatments to become available in poor countries. Sometimes they do not become available at all.

Pfizer said its plan includes 23 patented medicines and vaccines that the company fully⁴ owns. The medicines treat infectious diseases, some cancers, and rare and inflammatory diseases. In addition to Paxlovid and Ibrance, the list includes pneumonia⁵ vaccine² Prevnar 13, rheumatoid arthritis⁶ drug Xeljanz and cancer treatments Xalkori and Inlyta.

The COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty developed with the German company BioNTech is also on the list.

Pfizer's Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said that all the medicines being made available should be of use. "But clearly the antiviral Paxlovid is going to be a very big deal for them - if they need it they can get it immediately," he said.

The 27 low-income countries and 18 lower-income countries included in the deal cover most of Africa and much of Southeast Asia. Five countries - Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda - have already agreed to join.

Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera made a statement about the agreement. He said it will let the countries and the drugmaker share "the burden of costs and tasks in the production and delivery of supplies that will save millions of lives."

Pfizer has been criticized for how it made its COVID-19 vaccine available. Some poor countries waited for months after the approval of the vaccine in rich countries.

Bourla said the new agreement uses information learned during the release of the vaccine. He added that the lack of health systems in some countries made providing the vaccine to people who needed it difficult.

To avoid that, Bourla said the agreement not only supplies the treatments, it will also help organize a system to administer them.

Words in This Story

patented –adj. describing a product whose sales are protected by a patent: a document giving its owner the right to sell a product for an amount of time and which bars others from copying it without permission

inflammatory –adj. causing tissue in the body to increase in size or become red and painful

burden –n. a cost in money or effort

delivery –n. the process of taking something where it is meant to go

1 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

6 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。