Moderna CEO makes 12,000 times a minimum wage worker

MODERNA CEO MAKES 12,000 TIMES A MINIMUM WAGE WORKER

Release date: 03 May 2023

Responding to Moderna’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Mohga Kamal-Yanni from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“Moderna handed over $4 billion to shareholders during the COVID-19 pandemic, after extracting more than $10 billion from US taxpayers. Last year, Moderna’s CEO pocketed nearly $400 million, equivalent to almost $189,000 an hour, more than 12,000 times what a minimum wage worker makes in the company’s home state.

“Moderna plans to raise prices fivefold in the United States. Meanwhile, the company has refused to share technology with a WHO-backed program to build mRNA vaccine production in developing countries, instead filing far-reaching patents in South Africa where the program is based.

“How much will ever be enough? As Harry Truman said of Second World War Profiteers, ‘Their greed knows no limit.’ Pharmaceutical companies like Moderna are the War Profiteers of our time, and governments must curb their power with national and international actions to force the sharing of technology, remove intellectual property barriers, and cut prices.”

/ Ends

Notes
Moderna shareholders have voted in favor of the company’s proposed executive compensation package and against a resolution urging the company to explore the feasibility of transferring technology to the WHO-backed mRNA Technology Transfer Programme.

Moderna’s patents are a threat to the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-patent-application-raises-fears-africa-covid-vaccine-hub-2022-02-17/

Moderna received $10.8bn in public funding: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-073747

Moderna plans to raise the price of its COVID-19 vaccine in the US fivefold: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/22/moderna-ceo-stephane-bancel-defends-fivefold-price-hike-of-covid-vaccine-during-senate-grilling.html

The Washington Post reports that Moderna’s CEO made $393 million in 2022: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/04/29/modernas-billionaire-ceo-reaped-nearly-400-million-last-year-he-also-got-raise/

$393 million annually as an hourly rate would be $188,942.30/hour, based on a 40-hour work week across 52 weeks. This is 12,596 times the earnings of a minimum wage worker in the state of Massachusetts (where Moderna is based), making $15/hour.

Harry S Truman said of War Profiteers, “Their greed knows no limit”: https://daily.jstor.org/how-harry-truman-rose-to-fame-curbing-war-profiteers/

Oxfam has calculated that Moderna handed $4.1 billion to shareholders in 2021 and 2022, through share buybacks and dividends: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/press-releases/pfizer-moderna-johnson-johnson-merck-shareholders-must-vote-to-end-unequal-access-to-covid-19-vaccines-and-medicines/

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