Activists to Protest J&J’s ‘Pandemic Profiteering’ at New Jersey HQ Sept. 22

On the same day President Biden addresses the U.N. General Assembly on global COVID-19 vaccine access and supply, activists will protest J&J at its NJ global headquarters over its COVID-19 vaccine practices

Wednesday, September 22, 12:00 noon ET, 1 Johnson and Johnson Plaza, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and its partner organizations will hold a demonstration at the global headquarters of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), maker of a key single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, over the drug company’s ‘pandemic profiteering.’ The protest, part of the AHF-led ‘Vaccinate Our World’ (VOW) campaign, will be held in New Brunswick, New Jersey on Wednesday, Sept. 22 at 12 noon ET.

AHF’s J&J protest will also take place the same day that President Biden will be addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York on global COVID vaccine access and shortages. At a point where nearly 4.7 million people worldwide have died from the novel coronavirus, 57% of the world population have yet to receive a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.

J&J drew withering criticism recently over revelations that doses of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine being produced in South Africa—one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 and on the continent with the lowest vaccination rates—were being exported to Europe. After significant public outcry, those doses manufactured at Aspen Pharmacare’s facility in South Africa will now be shipped to African countries instead, according to the Wall Street Journal and Fierce Pharma.

“J&J has stated it will end nonprofit pricing for its COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021—just three months from now! It is also making US taxpayers pay twice for its lifesaving vaccine, as the company received over $1.5 billion from the US government to develop it,” said Terri Ford, Chief of Global Advocacy & Policy for AHF. “J&J: we are simply not going to allow this pandemic to turn into another AIDS crisis, when pharma companies kept lifesaving treatment from millions of people by charging exorbitant prices for medicines often developed with taxpayer support. We won’t stop until J&J, Pfizer, and Moderna do the right thing!”

According to Forbes, “J&J may have been obliged to price their vaccine cheaper (approx. $10 per dose, compared with Pfizer and Moderna’s higher price points) in return for receiving R&D money from the U.S. government. According to Bloomberg, the federal government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), an office in the Health and Human Services Department, granted J&J approximately $1.5 billion to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.”

J&J is also slated to produce doses in India. With severe vaccine shortages in the Asia-Pacific region, including India itself, it is imperative that these vaccines go to hard-hit lower-income countries, instead of getting shipped to more profitable markets in Europe and North America.

“In addition to J&J’s disgusting exportation of vaccines from Africa to the EU, India is facing the same potential treatment - J&J is scheduled to produce 600 million doses of its vaccine via an Indian pharmaceutical company,” said Dr. V. Sam Prasad, Country Program Director for AHF India Cares. “Just like the doses from Africa were returned by the EU, J&J must ensure all India-produced vaccines go to countries in need within the region or in Africa. Anything else is an injustice to the billions of people still suffering as they wait for a lifesaving vaccine, while wealthy countries contemplate booster shots."

“We also want to thank President Biden for pushing world leaders today at the UN General Assembly to join him and really step-up global vaccine distribution and access efforts. He and others often state, ‘This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’ and nowhere is that more true than in the scores of countries around the globe that are waiting—and desperately in need of—vaccines,” added Ford.

AHF spearheaded similar Vaccinate Our World protests targeting Pfizer, an even more egregious pandemic profiteer, and Moderna. The Pfizer protest took place on August 17 in front of its world headquarters in New York City. For information on the earlier Pfizer protest, click here; or to view/download Pfizer protest images, click here. The Moderna protest took place at its headquarters in Cambridge, MA on August 31. For information on that prior Moderna protest, click here; to view/download Moderna protest images, click here.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.6 million clients in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

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