"Moderna is quadrupling the cost of covid vaccines, from $26/dose to $110-130. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel calls the price hike "consistent with the value" of the mRNA vaccines. Moderna's manufacturing costs are $2.85/dose, for a 4,460% markup on every dose...
What will Moderna do with the billions it reaps through price-gouging? It won't be research. To date, the company has spent >20% of its covid windfall profits on stock buybacks and dividends, manipulating its stock price, with more to come...
It's not an outlier. Big Pharma is a machine for commercializing publicly funded research and then laundering the profits with financial engineering. The largest pharma companies each spend more on stock buybacks than research."
@rysiek@LisaKalayji Yes, that should be factored in, too. I think they have the right to recoup their costs (so long as that's done in a reasonable way). As long as that information isn't public, though, it means they can offer that ad a pretext for moves like this, which are clearly wrong. The information should be public, especially if they've received public money in funding and when it's in the public interest the way covid vaccination is.
@LisaKalayji I believe you mean "cronyism". What do you think holds others back from competing in this space? Moderna, Pfizer...these companies do not have a monopoly on information or effective technology. They DO have something much more effective; permission from the government to sell you something. The government are the ones controlling what you're allowed to put into your own body, and who you can buy it from.
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