Abolish capitalism, exhibit eleventy-million:
"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."
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/25/nationalize-moderna/#herd-immunity
#Pharma #BigPharma #Corruption #Medicine #Covid #Vaccines #Capitalism #Healthcare #HumanRights
@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.
@AlexanderKingsbury @LisaKalayji they do have a monopoly on the information/technology that is required to make their vaccine. Patents.
So much of the information is public. They don't have a monopoly on that.
They DO have a government enforced monopoly on *use of* that information, and that's what we should be reevaluating, the circumstances in which government should offer to enforce such monopolies.
@AlexanderKingsbury @LisaKalayji
@volkris patented information is public by definition but the monopoly concerns the right to utilize it.
