Who’s having a busier week? Big Pharma or Maya Rudolph?
1. $2.5 Billion Reasons Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Price Is Too High
- Moderna cut a $1.5 billion deal with the U.S. government this week to produce 100 million doses of the corporation’s COVID-19 vaccine. The latest deal brings taxpayer contributions to Moderna to $2.5 billion, for a calculated price of $25 a dose. This follows Moderna’s admissions that its vaccine contender is 100 percent funded by U.S. taxpayers and that the company may be joint owners of the vaccine’s patents with the NIH. Our lawmakers need to step up their game and stop price gouging plans before we have a vaccine. — (Reuters)
2. New Jerseyans Push For Drug Pricing Reforms
- New Jerseyans are struggling to afford prescription medications and nearly everyone agrees drug prices need to come down, a new surveyfound. That’s why government leaders and advocates — including Lisa Ann Wetzel-Trainor, a P4ADNow patient advocate — joined forces this week to push for reforms to America’s rigged drug pricing system. — (NJTV)
3. Big Pharma Pandemic Profiteers
- Historic windfalls await Big Pharma if we allow the industry to move forward with its plans to rip off America in the COVID-19 era. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Congress must protect the public from pharma’s pandemic profiteering. Weekend reading ➡️ — (Rolling Stone)
4. Connecting with Cash
- STAT’s in-depth reporting and data visualizations will let you follow the money to see how pharma showers members of Congress with cash. Drug companies and their trade groups have contributed $11 million to political funds for more than two-thirds of sitting members of Congress ahead of the 2020 election. — (STAT)
5. Pharma Blame Game Debunked
- Remember how pharma loves to pretend PBMs are to blame for high drug prices? Axios found that while PBMs and pharma are both bad actors in the drug pricing world, pharma captured the lion’s share of proceeds — $50 billion in 2019 for just 10 blockbuster drugs. — (Axios)