No Restraint on Spending, No Restraint on Prices: Reaction to Moderna Vaccine 100% Funded by Taxpayers

***For Immediate Release***

No Restraint on Spending, No Restraint on Prices: Reaction to Moderna Vaccine 100% Funded by Taxpayers

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, reacted to the admission by Moderna today that "Moderna has not been living up to contractual obligations to disclose the percentage of taxpayer dollars that are funding its coronavirus vaccine project, but the pharmaceutical company tells Axios that federal money makes up ‘100% funding of the program.'" His statement:

"What we really need is a cure for Trump Administration impotence against drug manufacturers, who take money from taxpayers' pockets to develop drugs for which they overcharge taxpayers to use. Industry political power combined with fear is driving extraordinary spending: billions for unproven products with no meaningful restraint on the prices Americans are charged. Taxpayers are the angel investors, yet, even when we pay for the entire cost of developing a pharmaceutical, manufacturers charge whatever they want. As any other investor would demand, we should have a stake in the outcome—and protection from paying and paying again, as taxpayer and as patient. With the public already paying for so much research and manufacturing, only the profits are being privatized."

This admission regarding taxpayer funding comes as broad support mounts for the Trump Administration to stand up for taxpayer rights regarding the COVID-19 treatment remdesivir; 34 State Attorneys General called this morning for HHS to utilize existing law to assure a reasonable price for reasonable supplies of remdesivir, a drug rescued from the scrapheap by taxpayer investment. This request comes after previous unanswered Congressional inquiries regarding taxpayer protection, including an April 2017 request to President Trump led by Rep. Doggett from 50 Members of Congress.

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