REACTION: US government invested $31.9 BILLION in mRNA vaccines, research reveals

Responding to research published in the British Medical Journal revealing that US government invested at least $31.9bn to develop, produce, and purchase mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Policy Co-Lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“Pharmaceutical companies have sold a false narrative to the public; that it was their investment which gave us mRNA vaccines and that they deserve the $75 billion profit made from COVID-19 vaccines. As this research shows, that claim is a total myth.

“In the United States alone, taxpayers have poured $31.9 billion into mRNA vaccines, including hundreds of millions before the pandemic. Without public investment, there would be no mRNA vaccines. Yet just three pharmaceutical companies have been handed monopolies on this lifesaving public science.

“Moderna has finally started paying royalties to the NIH for its work on the vaccine, but the measly sum paid is a tiny fraction of the company’s extraordinary windfall. Pharmaceutical companies cannot buy off the right to health. These are the people’s vaccines, and the technology behind them should be shared with the world.”

/Ends

Notes for editors

This is a reaction to new research published in the British Medical Journal: BMJ paper: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-073747

The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) in the Netherlands this week calculated that Pfizer, Moderna, and BioNTech have made a combined $75 billion in profit from COVID-19 vaccines. Sinovac has made a further $15 billion: https://www.somo.nl/big-pharma-raked-in-usd-90-billion-in-profits-with-covid-19-vaccines/

Moderna has paid $400 million to the government for a chemical technique key to its vaccine. But the parties are still locked in a high-stakes dispute over a different patent: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/science/moderna-covid-vaccine-patent-nih.html

The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a coalition of over 100 organisations and networks, supported by Nobel Laureates, health experts, economists, Heads of States, faith leaders and activists, working together for vaccines, tests, and treatments to be available free of charge to everyone, everywhere – for a People’s Vaccine: https://peoplesmedicines.org/supporters/

Media contact

Joe Karp-Sawey, Senior Media Advisor, People’s Vaccine Alliance

[email protected]