Story at a glance
- Moderna is one of a handful of pharmaceutical companies that received money from the federal government to develop its vaccine and to secure contracts for purchases.
- However, Moderna has only shipped about one million doses to low-income countries, while Pfizer has shipped about 8.5 million and Johnson & Johnson about 25 million.
- Moderna is also accused of charging poorer countries more for it’s vaccine than wealthier nations like the U.S.
Countries around the world view the COVID-19 vaccine as the golden ticket out of the pandemic but access to vaccines remains unequal, so much so that one drug maker’s shareholders are demanding answers over the inequity.
There are currently multiple vaccine manufacturers producing a COVID-19 vaccine and the U.S. government has partnered with a handful to provide funding for development along with contracts to confirm purchases of the vaccines. Moderna was given $945 million for development and $4.9 billion for the purchase of 300 million doses of its two-dose mRNA vaccine.
Moderna has charged the U.S. around $15 per dose, while in other countries it charges as much as $30 per dose, according to Fortune.
However, Moderna has been accused of supplying it’s COVID-19 vaccine primarily to wealthy nations, like the U.S. and U.K., while poorer countries maintain incredibly low vaccination rates. According to an analysis by The New York Times, Moderna has shipped a greater share of its doses to wealthy countries than any other vaccine manufacturer.
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According to The Times, Moderna has shipped about one million doses of its vaccine to low-income countries, while vaccine maker Pfizer has sent about 8.4 million and Johnson & Johnson has shipped about 25 million.
Asset management firm Legal & General wrote to Moderna earlier in December about how the pharmaceutical company had not committed to provide its vaccine on a nonprofit basis during the pandemic, while also charging countries like Botswana, Thailand and Colombia between $27 and $30 per dose, which is more than what many high-income countries were charged.
Oxfam America, Moderna shareholders, also promptly reacted to the company’s lack of vaccine supply in poorer countries, releasing a statement last week that alleged Moderna has been “unable to produce enough doses to cover global need yet unwilling to share the technology with other manufacturers to ramp up production so everyone, everywhere could have access to this life-saving vaccine.”
Oxfam America also accused Moderna of failing to disclose a patent dispute with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Instead of being transparent and using its life-saving technology to help curb the pandemic, Moderna is doing the opposite, obfuscating its patent dispute with the US government, ignoring the death and suffering of millions worldwide, and declining to share their technology to help alleviate the stranglehold that COVID-19 has placed on the global economy,” said Diana Kearney, senior legal advisor for Legal and Shareholder Advocacy at Oxfam.
Both Oxfam and Legal & General’s statements come after Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel announced in October that his company would supply up to 500 million doses of vaccine beginning in the fourth quarter of 2021 through 2022.
Moderna has promised to release a statement by mid-February 2022 that will provide an explanation to Legal & General’s statements, according to Fortune. The company also has its 2022 annual meeting scheduled for April next year.
However, an independent COVID-19 response initiative called COVID Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) found that by November 2021, many goals, commitments and pledges to help solve the pandemic remained largely unfulfilled. COVID GAP also found that nearly all low-income countries, including most African countries, are at high risk of not reaching a 40 percent vaccination target by the end of this year.
The group estimates about 650 million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses are required for at-risk countries to reach the 40 percent target.
That stands at a stark contrast to wealthier nations like the U.S., which currently has a 72 percent vaccination rate and is administering booster shots.
In an emailed statement to Changing America, a Moderna spokesperson said the company is aware of Oxfam’s complaint and that, “we take our obligations under the SEC disclosure rules seriously and vigorously dispute these meritless allegations. We are committed to working collaboratively with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging variants such as Omicron.”
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