The drug companies represented at today’s hearing have received nearly $2.5 billion in taxpayer funding, patients still don’t know if vaccine will be affordable

Trump’s vaccine program has been shrouded in secrecy, mired in conflicts of interest and drug company influence

Drug companies won’t rule out profiteering even as executives, including Moderna executive testifying at hearing today, cash in on stock options 

Washington, DC –  In advance of this morning’s House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing featuring testimony from executives representing AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, and Pfizer, Patients Over Pharma released the following statement calling on members of the Subcommittee to press the drug company executives on the deals they struck with the Trump Administration and what commitments, if any, they made regarding vaccine pricing in return for the billions of dollars in taxpayer funding the Trump Administration handed to them.

“Committee members need to hold these drug company executives’ feet to the fire and push them to finally answer what the Trump Administration has refused to: What assurances did the government get regarding vaccine pricing and potential drug company profiteering?,” said Eli Zupnick, a spokesman for Patients Over Pharma. “We know that drug company executives are making millions of dollars cashing in their stock options, but patients and taxpayers deserve to know what they are going to get from the billions of dollars the Trump Administration has handed over to drug companies so far.”

Last week, Patients Over Pharma released a report marking two months since the formal launch of the Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed (OWS) on May 15, 2020. Excerpts of the report are below highlighting the drug companies represented at the hearing, the connections between them and OWS leadership, the conflicts of interest that have emerged as multi-billion-dollar decisions have been made, and what we know about any pricing or access commitments made by the drug companies so far.

From Patients Over Pharma’s Operation Warp Speed at Two Months report:

Moderna 

Johnson & Johnson

AstraZeneca

Merck

Pfizer

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