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It’s Moderna’s AGM today. While the #Moderna vaccine has propelled its CEO to billionaire status, we say this technology is too important to be in private hands. We demand it becomes a #PeoplesVaccine not a profit vaccine. THREAD (1/10)
The technology behind Moderna’s vaccine was created with public money. Then the US government spent another $5.75billion on its development, manufacture, trials & advance purchases “reimbursing Moderna for 100% of the allowable costs” (2/10) https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/shot-recovery
. @Public_Citizen says “Taxpayers are paying for 100% of Moderna’s #COVID19 vaccine development. All of it. Yet taxpayers may wind up paying tens of billions more to Moderna to buy our vaccine back.” (3/10) https://www.citizen.org/news/paying-twice-for-a-vaccine-moderna-is-taking-taxpayers-for-a-ride/
Despite this, Moderna is profiting. They expect to bring in $18billion from the vaccine this year - likely making it the third biggest selling pharmaceutical product in 2021. Staggering given experts suggest these types of vaccines could cost as little as $2 per dose (4/10)
To date, Moderna has sold nearly all its supply to rich nations - the least fairly distributed vaccine in use. Nothing to low income countries or the global distribution facility COVAX. (5/10)
It’s not bad news for everyone. Since the pandemic began, Moderna’s CEO has cashed out over $142 million in Moderna stock. He’s now a billionaire worth over $5 billion (6/10) https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/09/new-vaccine-billionaires-gain-wealth-as-moderna-pfizer-shares-soar-.html
Corporate execs at Moderna have sold huge amounts of stock, making an absolute fortune, and prompting a former regulator to say some of the sales were “highly problematic” and worthy of investigation. (7/10) https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/01/business/moderna-vaccine-stock-sales-invs/index.html
Good news: because the technology was US-funded, the government retains some rights to license it. Campaigners are pushing Biden to use this power to ramp up manufacturing and openly share the technology. (8/10) https://www.citizen.org/news/letter-biden-should-use-u-s-governments-patented-technology-to-expand-nih-moderna-vaccine-production/
This really matters! The technology is revolutionary. It's being used to develop HIV & cancer vaccines. While this could be extremely profitable (hence they want the patents) if publicly controlled, it could transform our health system (9/10) https://www.biospace.com/article/mrna-tech-used-in-covid-19-vaccines-could-be-used-to-cure-hiv-cancer-and-other-diseases/
This is a vital resource for humanity which could transform the lives of huge numbers of people. Given the vast public money which funded it, this technology should become a public good, not an opportunity to create more billionaires. (10/10) https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/2021/04/moderna-this-should-be-a-peoples-vaccine-not-a-profit-vaccine/
