Target: Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna Therapeutics
Goal: Do not raise prices by 400 percent on life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.
Satellite images show drastically increased activity around funeral homes and crematoriums in China, fueling reports that the nation is vastly underrepresenting the toll of its latest COVID-19 wave that began following a relaxation of mitigation procedures. Each successive variant of the virus grows increasingly contagious, meaning new infections and reinfections that strongly increase the risk of long COVID symptoms. These realities, along with predictions of a hard winter ahead, demonstrate that while the world may want to be done with this disease, it is far from done with us.
Yet just as they’re needed most, one of the top vaccine manufacturers is said to be making a move that will cut off millions of people. Moderna, the company with one of the most effective COVID vaccines on the planet, will allegedly hike prices per dosage from 26 dollars up to 130 dollars: a 400-plus percent increase. Due to government investments and taxpayer funding, this company has already netted nearly 20 billion dollars per year in earnings. But apparently this astronomical number is not good enough to keep an organization that has dedicated itself to healthcare to put people and public health before profits.
Sign the petition below to urge Moderna to rethink turning its back on the Americans who helped make its windfall possible.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Bancel,
Without the financial support of the American government and the American people, this company would not be sitting on tens of billions of dollars in profits from its COVID-19 vaccines. As Senator Bernie Sanders aptly stated, “this vaccine was discovered in partnership with the NIH, with a government agency supported by the taxpayers of this country,” Now you want to transform a two-dollar per dose production model into a 130-dollar exercise in unchecked and deadly greed.
Make no mistake that while this price hike may fatten your wallets, it will cost untold lives. Will the bonuses be worth the tragedy you could have helped prevent? In your mission statement, you claim to be a company “built on a foundation of integrity, quality, and respect” that focuses on “patients, employees, the environment, and our local communities.” Are these just empty words, or do they actually mean something to you?
If so, live by your motto and “do the right thing the right way” by prioritizing public health protection over needless profiteering.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Lucasz Katlewa
Cheap, money grabbing big Pharma. So, what’s new!
It is difficult to understand why a company who did not get to this place of success alone, would deliberately raise the price of vaccine from $2 to $130 for one shot. I don’t think you care about the lives you are not saving but you should care about the reputation you are gaining. A time may come when you might again place a bid to be one of the few to create a vaccine, but again never at your total expense. However this time the American taxpayer remembers you and your completely disgusting lapse of memory as to who supported you the first time and choose another company. Not equal to your company? Guess again. No one is irreplaceable! Ever!