After nearly two years of COVID, how is the pharmaceutical industry faring? In this episode, we explore where drug companies were before the arrival of COVID and how they performed financially during the pandemic. And we hear about the ongoing tensions between profits and equitable access to vaccines.

Featuring, Ray Moynihan, assistant professor at the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University in Australia; Jérôme Caby, professor of corporate finance at Sorbonne Business School in Paris, France; Ana Santos Rutschman, assistant professor of law at Saint Louis University in the US; and Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York in the US.

And Ozayr Patel, digital editor at The Conversation in Johannesburg, South Africa, recommends some reading on the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

• COVID vaccines offer the pharma industry a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset its reputation. But it’s after decades of big profits and scandals, by Ray Moynihan, Bond University
• Why Moderna won’t share rights to the COVID-19 vaccine with the government that paid for its development, by Ana Santos Rutschman, Saint Louis University
• The US drug industry used to oppose patents – what changed? by Joseph M. Gabriel, Florida State University
• The hunt for coronavirus variants: how the new one was found and what we know so far, by a panel of experts in South Africa
• Omicron is the new COVID kid on the block: five steps to avoid, ten to take immediately, by Shabir A. Madhi, University of the Witwatersrand