£2bn profit for Pfizer

PHARMA giant Pfizer made nearly £2billion in profits from the cash-strapped NHS for its Covid vaccine.

- JOHN SIDDLE

The whopping mark-up is six times the amount the Government spent on its pay rise for exhausted nurses.

Campaigners last night called for a rethink of rules which allow giants such as Pfizer to siphon off money from a publicly funded vaccine.

The NHS paid £2.57bn to Pfizer for 135 million doses of its Covid vaccine, with a £1.9bn mark-up above production cost.

The jab cost just £4.94 to produce - but the taxpayer was billed £18 a dose for the first 100 million jabs and £22 a dose for the next 35 million.

The eye-watering profit margin is more than six times the £302million ministers have allowed NHS England to spend on pay rises for nurses.