Pfizer avoids taxes via the Netherlands and makes a profit worth billions

Pfizer earns billions from Covid vaccines purchased by governments. The vaccines have been developed in part thanks to research by universities, and are purchased with taxpayers’ money. But Pfizer prefers to pay as little tax as possible. The company successfully avoids tax authorities via the Netherlands.

Standing in front of this nondescript brick building in an office park in Capelle aan den IJssel, you would never guess that it houses a company worth billions. Yet here resides an enterprise with annual revenues of over 36 billion euros, which ranks it among the 15 largest companies in the Netherlands by turnover. With that kind of money, you would expect a prestigious, shiny building in a prominent location.

This is the home of the Dutch branch of the Pfizer corporation. The company expects a bumper year: over 2021 Pfizer hopes to generate revenues of over 21 billion euros from the Covid vaccine it developed together with the German company BioNTech.

Pfizer, until recently mainly known as the producer of Viagra, has struck gold. Pfizer and BioNTech were the first to market their Covid vaccine, and so far there have been no issues with side-effects – in contrast to several competitors. During the first three months of this year, the company saw its revenue increase by 42 percent to 14.6 billion dollars. That benefits all of us, claims Marc Kaptein, director of Pfizer Nederland, in an open letter published in de Volkskrant. He states that the company has invested 2 billion dollars in developing the vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech expect to sell 21-billion-euros worth of vaccines in 2021. According to Pfizer, the profit margin on that sum is ‘in the high twenties’. A 25 percent margin would amount to more than 5,2 billion euros in profits.

And that is just the beginning. Last week the EU bought 1,8 billion extra doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. The vaccines will probably be needed for years to come, as follow-up vaccinations will be needed for billions of people to curb Covid-19.