Friends -
As I’m sure you’re aware, corporate greed is out of control. The oil companies have made huge profits by raising gas prices. The food industry has made billions by increasing the price of the groceries that we purchase. Wall Street and the big banks are making enormous profits on financial services.
And then there is the pharmaceutical industry.
There is probably no better example of uncontrolled corporate welfare and corporate greed than Moderna – a company that is making billions from the COVID-19 vaccine they brought to market with major taxpayer assistance.
This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Moderna is considering more than quadrupling the price of its COVID-19 vaccine after the supply that the U.S. government purchased, and distributed to Americans at no cost, is depleted.
Instead of charging $26.36 per dose, the price that the government paid, Moderna has indicated that the commercial price will go up to as much as $130 per dose.
This decision will impact the federal budget and the cost of private insurance. Most importantly, however, unnecessary deaths will occur because millions of Americans will not be able to afford the vaccine at the new cost. How many of these Americans will die from COVID-19 as a result of not being able to take these life-saving vaccines? While nobody can predict the exact figure, the number could well be in the thousands. In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much-needed vaccine is unconscionable.
I find Moderna's decision particularly offensive given the fact that the vaccine was jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. government agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers. The federal government directly provided $1.7 billion to Moderna for research and development, and guaranteed the company billions more in sales. In other words, Moderna is proposing to make the vaccine unaffordable for the residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible. That is not acceptable.
You should also know that in the last two years Moderna made over $19 billion in profits and used those profits to provide incredibly extravagant compensation packages to top officials at the company. It is reported that the CEO, Stéphane Bancel, became a multi-billionaire as a direct result of Moderna's COVID vaccine with Forbes currently estimating his wealth at $6.1 billion.
Moreover, Noubar Afeyan, Moderna's chairman and co-founder is now currently worth $2.1 billion. Robert Langer, another co-founder of Moderna, is now worth $2.2 billion. Timothy Springer, a founding investor in Moderna, is now worth $2.6 billion. Further, Moderna approved a $926 million golden parachute for Mr. Bancel, along with $160 million for Stephen Hoge (Moderna's president) and $53 million for Juan Andres (Moderna's chief technical officer).
I should point out that all of this corporate welfare and profiteering has taken place in the midst of the worst public health crisis in America in 100 years. In the last three years, nearly 1.1 million Americans died from COVID-19 and over 100 million more have become ill. It has also been estimated that the cost of producing the vaccine is now as low as $2.85 per dose – 2.2% of what Moderna plans to charge the public.
Let's be clear: The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect the health and lives of the American people, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires.
The federal government, over the years, has supported Moderna every step of the way going back to 2013 when the company reportedly only had three employees. Now, in the midst of a continuing public health crisis and a growing federal deficit, is not the time for Moderna to be quadrupling the price of this vaccine. Now is not the time for unacceptable corporate greed.
So today, it is important that we send a powerful message to Mr. Bancel that we will not tolerate Moderna's greedy and reckless decision to raise the price of the COVID-19 vaccine in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
Please sign my petition:
Thank you for adding your name today to show that our movement is united on this issue.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
Paid for by Friends of Bernie Sanders
PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402
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