How a Big Pharma Company Stalled a Potentially Lifesaving Vaccine in Pursuit of Bigger Profits

*Illustration by George Wylesol / ProPublica*

Ever since he was a medical student, Dr. Neil Martinson has confronted the horrors of tuberculosis, the world’s oldest and deadliest pandemic. For more than 30 years, patients have streamed into the South African clinics where he has worked — migrant workers, malnourished children and pregnant women with HIV — coughing up blood. Some were so emaciated, he could see their ribs. They’d breathed in the contagious bacteria from a cough on a crowded bus or in the homes of loved ones who didn’t know they had TB. Once infected, their best option was to spend months swallowing pills that often carried terrible side effects. Many died.

So, when Martinson joined a call in April 2018, he was anxious for the verdict about a tuberculosis vaccine he’d helped test on hundreds of people.

The results blew him away: The shot prevented over half of those infected from getting sick; it was the biggest TB vaccine breakthrough in a century. He hung up, excited, and waited for the next step, a trial that […]

2 Comments

Terri Quint on Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 7:26 am

Couldn’t read the full article on TB because it kept going to an article on Clarence Thomas.
Terri Quint

Albus Eddie on Friday, October 6, 2023 at 6:16 am

When you read of the skepticism from the public regarding the healthcare system, think of this article. The for profit impulse in healthcare is a cancer eating at the fabric of our society. This scourge manifests itself in the purchase of medical practices ( including ED physicians ) by hedge funds (and then raise prices and remaining out of network), the institution of law suits against patients for unpaid bills, the limiting of care by so called “managed care” companies which improves their bottom lines, and of course the items listed in the article regarding profits for Big Pharma. The public has every right to question the motivations of providers, healthcare corporations, big pharma, and those governmental officials ( who revolve from private employment to government service and back ) seeking to impose “care” upon them through force of law. The profit motive in this instance erodes trust between patients and their physicians. If it is not addressed you will see increased resistance from the public at large. People will assert the right to protect themselves from institutions which they believe are not working in their best interest.

Terri Quint on Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 7:26 am

Couldn’t read the full article on TB because it kept going to an article on Clarence Thomas.
Terri Quint
Albus Eddie on Friday, October 6, 2023 at 6:16 am

When you read of the skepticism from the public regarding the healthcare system, think of this article. The for profit impulse in healthcare is a cancer eating at the fabric of our society. This scourge manifests itself in the purchase of medical practices ( including ED physicians ) by hedge funds (and then raise prices and remaining out of network), the institution of law suits against patients for unpaid bills, the limiting of care by so called “managed care” companies which improves their bottom lines, and of course the items listed in the article regarding profits for Big Pharma. The public has every right to question the motivations of providers, healthcare corporations, big pharma, and those governmental officials ( who revolve from private employment to government service and back ) seeking to impose “care” upon them through force of law. The profit motive in this instance erodes trust between patients and their physicians. If it is not addressed you will see increased resistance from the public at large. People will assert the right to protect themselves from institutions which they believe are not working in their best interest.