REACTION: Moderna condemned for ‘blatant profiteering’ from publicly-funded Covid vaccine

REACTION: Moderna condemned for ‘blatant profiteering’ from publicly-funded Covid vaccine

Date: 4 May 2022
Campaigns: Pharma

  • US pharma company makes first-quarter 2022 vaccine revenues of $5.9 billion and reaffirms revenue forecasts for 2022 of $21 billion for its vaccine
  • Pre-tax income of $4.2 billion and overall sales of $5.9 billion leave the company with eye-watering profit margins of 71%
  • In the first quarter of 2022, Moderna spent more money on share buybacks ($623 million) than research and development ($554 million) (1)

Reacting to the news of US vaccine maker Moderna’s first quarter results, Tim Bierley, pharma campaigner at Global Justice Now said:

“Moderna has benefited from billions in public funding and years of painstaking research by US government scientists – yet it still demands governments around the world pay through the nose to access this vaccine. This is a model that big pharma companies have been allowed to get away with for too long. Moderna’s blatant profiteering must be the signal for change.(2)

“Moderna’s almost total  failure to provide its vaccine to low-income countries, even as fragile health systems teetered on the edge and death tolls mounted, tells us all we need to know about this company.(3) Rich country governments need to finally put global public health first in this pandemic. The US should force Moderna to share its vaccine technology with firms in the global south, and all governments must press for a real, effective waiver on the deadly intellectual property rules that enable these outrageous profits.”(4)

ENDS

Global Justice Now is a UK-based campaigning organisation and part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, www.globaljustice.org.uk.

Notes

  1. Moderna reports first-quarter 2022 results: https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2022/Moderna-Reports-First-Quarter-2022-Financial-Results-and-Provides-Business-Updates/default.aspx
  2. What Moderna Owes the World. StatNews, 4 Nov 2021: https://www.statnews.com/2021/11/04/what-moderna-owes-the-world/
  3. Pharmaceutical companies’ failure on equal vaccine access contributed to human rights catastrophe in 2021. Amnesty International, 14 Feb 2022: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/covid-19-pharmaceutical-companies-failure-on-equal-vaccine-access-contributed-human-rights-catastrophe-in-2021/
  4. MSF comments on the reported draft text of the TRIPS Waiver negotiation. MSF, 30 March 2022: https://msfaccess.org/msf-comments-reported-draft-text-trips-waiver-negotiation

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