Moderna faces suspension over ethical breaches in COVID vaccine practices
As UK pharmaceutical regulators threaten Moderna with suspension for ethical violations, such as offering children financial incentives and teddy bears for vaccine trials, will this prompt Canada's public health authorities to address serious concerns about DNA contamination and inadequate oversight in COVID vaccine safety?
Moderna, a key player in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, is facing a potential suspension from Britain’s pharmaceutical trade body, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
A scathing report from The Telegraph UK reveals a series of ethical violations that include society's most vulnerable: children.
The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) has launched a full audit of Moderna’s operations, citing “completely unacceptable” breaches of the regulatory code.
Among the allegations were offering children £1,500 (approximately $2,700 CAD) and teddy bears to participate in vaccine trials — a clear violation of UK rules prohibiting financial incentives for clinical trial participants, especially minors.
The campaign group UsForThem exposed this practice in August 2023, but Moderna claimed ignorance until January 2024. The PMCPA slammed Moderna’s lack of transparency as discrediting the entire pharmaceutical industry.
The misconduct doesn’t end there.
A senior Moderna employee co-authored articles, including one with former UK vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, promoting the company's COVID vaccine without disclosing his affiliation. He even took to X, posing as a neutral advocate, in what the PMCPA called deceptive advertising.
With Moderna now facing a comprehensive review of its culture and governance, expulsion from the ABPI is a real possibility, despite being a rare consequence, having occurred only nine times in 40 years.
Molly Kingsley of UsForThem didn’t mince words, calling out Moderna for its disregard of the regulatory system meant to keep it honest. With the company pulling in nearly £7 billion in revenue, critics argue that fines or reputational hits are mere pocket change and unlikely to deter future misconduct.
Here in Canada, this scandal raises red flags about continued regulatory oversight.
Independent experts like virologist Dr. David Speicher and genomics expert Kevin McKernan have long warned of issues with COVID-19 vaccines, including DNA contamination in Pfizer’s shots. Speicher’s research revealed residual DNA fragments and the SV40 promoter — a nuclear targeting sequence — at levels far exceeding regulatory limits, raising concerns about potential genomic integration and health risks like cancer.
Former regulatory pharmacist Maria Gutschi echoes these concerns, noting the vaccines’ shift to a less-tested manufacturing process and their misclassification as vaccines rather than gene therapies, which demands stricter safety monitoring.
Health Canada, however, maintains that the vaccines meet “stringent safety, efficacy, and quality requirements,” dismissing the SV40 risks as “inactive” and “unfounded.”
Yet, as government documents show inconsistencies in their internal communication versus their public relations, public trust continues to erode.
If regulators like Health Canada turn a blind eye to such glaring issues, who is truly safeguarding Canadians’ health?
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-05-02 21:03:21 -0400Big pharma must always be investigated. Money tends to corrupt people. So these big companies must be investigated routinely. But politicians can be easily bribed.
