Moderna fine

'Inappropriate financial inducement', company had brought “discredit upon the pharmaceutical industry”.Moderna under fire after children offered cash to test Covid vaccine

Company targeted 12 to 18 year-olds through WhatsApp with payments of £1,500

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/02/moderna-offered-children-cash-test-covid-vaccine/

Moderna has been rebuked by regulators

Moderna ordered to pay £14,000

(Moderna, total revenue was $6.8 billion in 2023)

Moderna representative had sent a WhatsApp message offering £1,500 to children to be subjects in covid booster trials.

NextCove trial

The offer was made by a paediatrician from an unnamed NHS trust

UK Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA)

https://www.pmcpa.org.uk/cases/completed-cases/auth3886324-a-complaint-on-behalf-of-children-s-covid-vaccines-advisory-council-v-moderna/

Ruled that the offer amounted to “inappropriate financial inducement”,

found the company had brought “discredit upon the pharmaceutical industry”.

UK Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority

https://www.pmcpa.org.uk

https://www.pmcpa.org.uk/about-us/

https://www.abpi.org.uk

A research ethics committee

Warned about the “large amount of money” that Moderna was offering,

voiced concern it was “much higher than would be considered a reasonable reimbursement”.

The Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations (2004)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/1031/contents

It is prohibited for incentives or financial inducements to be given to children or their parents.

Complaint was filed in the UK

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/moderna-blamed-after-children-offered-1-500-to-take-part-in-covid-19-trial/ar-AA1rhn4y

On behalf of the Children’s Covid Vaccines Advisory Council

https://childrensunion.org/ccvac/

In a statement, the PMCPA ruled

“On balance, the panel considered that this brought discredit upon and reduced confidence in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Moderna must provide a written undertaking that the practice will “cease forthwith” and pay for administrative costs.

Esther McVey MP

(formerly of the APPG on Covid-19 vaccine damage)

“A charge of £14,000 to a company that enjoyed a total revenue of $6.8 billion in 2023 is hardly likely to make them think twice before breaking the rules again.

“Not only are the charges too small but when they come, they come too late. There is a major backlog in handling these kinds of complaints, with a recent case against Moderna taking the PMCPA 18 months to consider.

“The system is clearly broken and failing to keep patients safe from misleading information and advertising about medicines.

The public’s trust in healthcare authorities will only continue to be damaged unless meaningful action is taken.”

Corporate interests vs the public’s right to know

By Rt Hon Esther McVey

It is time for real transparency in clinical research.

The case details the company’s inappropriate and unacceptable use of social media and big financial incentives to recruit healthy children into its Covid-19 vaccine trial.

For me, this case prompts further questions about how and why Moderna’s NextCOVE trial was ever approved in the first place.