Moderna was ordered to pay £14,000 after it emerged that a representative had sent a WhatsApp message offering £1,500 to children to take part in covid booster trials.
The pharmaceutical company is now being heavily criticised, according to The Telegraph. The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (PMCPA) ruled that the offer constituted an “inappropriate financial inducement” and found that the company had brought “the pharmaceutical industry into disrepute”.
The offer was made by a paediatrician and targeted children between the ages of 12 and 18. The children were offered money to participate in the NextCove study, which investigated the efficacy of Moderna’s booster jab.
Under the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) regulations, offering such incentives to children or their parents is prohibited. In a statement, the PMCPA says:
“The panel noted that the financial incentive offered in the unauthorised WhatsApp message was never paid, but considered that it could have encouraged participants to apply to take part.
The panel felt that the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the special circumstances of this study involving the recruitment of children, meant that Moderna should have been particularly careful.
All in all, the panel felt that Moderna should have been particularly careful.
All in all, the panel felt that this brought the pharmaceutical industry into disrepute and reduced confidence in it.”
Critics, however, believe that Moderna is getting off too lightly. Esther McVey is a Tory MP and former member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Covid-19 vaccine injuries.
She believes a £14,000 fine is unlikely to make a company that had total revenues of $6.8 billion in 2023 think twice about breaking the rules again.
– Not only are the fees too small, but when they come, they come too late. There’s a huge backlog in processing these types of complaints, and it recently took 18 months for the PMCPA to process a case against Moderna, says McVey.
– It’s clear that the system is not working and is failing to protect patients from misleading information and advertising about medicines. The public’s trust in health authorities will only continue to be eroded if meaningful action is not taken.
Moderna was also convicted of violating the guidelines for the way it had promoted the Spikevax Covid vaccine during the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in April 2022.
The scandals surrounding the covid vaccines are growing bigger by the week. Molly Kingsley from campaign group Us For Them is also critical.
– There has been a long line of such rulings against Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GSK for similar serious offences, and yet there have been no real-world consequences for any of these companies.
– It’s incredible that the PMCPA, which is an industry self-regulatory body, doesn’t have the authority to impose fines or other meaningful sanctions for serious violations of the rules.
Kingsley believes that self-regulation is a privilege that the pharmaceutical industry is arrogantly exploiting.
Patients suffer, especially when it comes to a “vaccine” that was more or less forced on the population.