A global focus on ending the COVID-19 pandemic

Today, President Biden convened global leaders to confront the challenges around ending this pandemic. We stand with the president, all governments, organizations and sectors in a shared commitment to:

• Vaccinate the world;
• Save lives now; and
• Be better prepared for the next public health crisis.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, America’s biopharmaceutical companies have come together in unprecedented ways to attack the virus. These include enhancing testing availability, working closely with hospitals and physicians on thousands of clinical trials, and teaming up with competitors and new partners through hundreds of collaborations in countries around the world to manufacture and deliver vaccines.

Biopharmaceutical companies have ramped up COVID-19 vaccine production from zero to as many as 12 billion doses this year. We are also working to address barriers standing in the way of global vaccination, including vaccine hesitancy and further increasing production and partnerships. As I’ve said previously, waiving commitments to protect vaccine intellectual property would threaten our collective ability to meet the ambitious global vaccination goals by compromising efforts to expand global manufacturing capacity and jeopardize safety.

Plus, our companies continue to innovate as the virus evolves, with ongoing research into new and existing treatments and vaccines. Today, there are more than 600 global unique therapies for COVID-19 in trial, including several that have already made their way to patients. Furthermore, COVID-19 has demonstrated that we need a more resilient health care system that works for all patients and robust support for innovation. For instance, we were prepared to fight COVID-19 due to years of industry investments in technology, like mRNA. We need to make these same smart investments today to prepare for tomorrow’s world.

Our industry will continue to drive coordination, collaboration and joint problem-solving across the research and development, manufacturing and distribution ecosystems to fight the pandemic. Our work is not done. I was honored to participate in this international gathering focused on solutions that will end this pandemic and get our world back to normal. The biopharmaceutical industry is committed to being a partner with all stakeholders to beat COVID-19.

To read more about PhRMA’s commitment to COVID-19, please click here.