Pandemic has been a “lucrative smash and grab operation”, campaigners say

Responding to Moderna’s Q2 earnings report, Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Policy co-lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was developed totally by public funding. Yet the company has been allowed to make huge profits while doing next to nothing to ensure equitable access for people in lower-income countries. For the company’s newly created billionaires, this pandemic has been a lucrative smash and grab operation.

“Now Moderna is threatening the world’s response to future pandemics. Broad patents filed by the company in South Africa could derail a WHO and African Union project aimed at responding to global health crises by rolling out mRNA vaccines made in low and middle-income countries.

“In the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders have allowed pharmaceutical companies to place extraordinary profits ahead of saving lives. And we have seen the huge impact on life and livelihoods in lower-income countries that is far more than in rich countries. Unless we change course, the world’s response to a crisis like Monkeypox will be just as brutally unequal.”

/Ends

Notes for editors

Resources on the threat Moderna’s patents in South Africa pose to the mRNA hub:

MSF:https://msfaccess.org/removing-intellectual-property-barriers-covid-19-vaccines-and-treatments-people-south-africa

Nature: https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-01898-3/index.html?s=08

2021 research from Oxfam on public funding received by major vaccine candidates: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/the-great-vaccine-robbery/

Excess deaths were four times higher in lower-income countries than in rich countries, according to Oxfam and PVA analysis of data from The Economist: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-releases/covid-death-toll-four-times-higher-in-poorer-countries-than-rich-countries/

Less than half of the vaccine doses G7 countries promised to lower-income countries have been delivered, contributing to one preventable death every minute: https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/g7-vaccines-failures-contribute-600000-preventable-deaths

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