SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Local health experts share opposing views on Moderna’s decision to withhold their vaccine recipe from the rest of the world.
The United Nations health agency has already pressed the company to share its vaccine formula. Moderna said the most efficient way to mass-produce high-quality vaccines is if it produced them itself.
“It’s not surprising that they say this is our intellectual property,” said Lisa Olson-Gugerty, a Syracuse University public health professor. “This we can produce, and we can meet global pandemic standard, and of course, we want to make a profit.”
“I don’t know if I can fault the CEO because this is their company, their research… their business,” said Olson-Gugerty.
David Larsen, fellow Syracuse University public health professor, disagreed and labeled the decision as “money-grubbing” and “capitalistic garbage.”
“It’s pretty despicable that we’re not sharing the instructions to build these vaccines,” said Larsen.
Larsen referenced an example in the ’90s where big pharmaceutical companies were forced to reduce the price of their antiviral HIV treatment to avoid losing their patents when countries like South Africa had millions suffering from HIV who couldn’t afford treatment.
Larsen said this same principle of companies withholding sensitive information instead of sharing it during a public health crisis applied here.
“Moderna is a new company and hasn’t learned this lesson,” Larsen said.
Olson-Gugerty, who also works as a nurse practitioner, said that public opinion on healthcare providers has shifted throughout the pandemic for refusing service to unvaccinated patients.
“People were out clapping and celebrating us and singing for healthcare providers, and now we’re sort of becoming villains because we’re asking ‘have you been vaccinated?’ Providers are dropping their patience and refusing to do surgery because you’re not vaccinated,” Olson-Gugerty said.
