AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) says Moderna’s promise to build a state-of-the-art mRNA manufacturing facility in Africa in 2022 was nothing more than a self-serving effort to deflect criticism for price gouging on its COVID-19 vaccine after the pharma company announced today that it’s suspending the project.

“Moderna’s greed knows no bounds. It raked in $30 billion in profit since 2021. Now, it claims the mRNA factory in Kenya is no longer worth the investment because the African market for vaccines is not profitable enough. The only reason Moderna was able to achieve such astronomical profits in the first place was because it exploited publicly funded research and gained a stranglehold on the global supply of COVID-19 vaccines,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “Moderna’s claim that it undertook the project to support global health equity was a thinly veiled attempt to dodge pressure from the U.S. government and international civil society for fleecing the world. Now, Moderna has little to offer aside from empty promises, but that should not stop our collective efforts to ensure genuine global health equity.”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.9 million clients in 47 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

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