Moderna fined for ‘luring children into Covid vaccine trials' with teddy bears
Moderna has been ordered to pay almost £44,000 after 12-year-olds were encouraged to join Covid vaccine trials with the promise of teddy bears.
The US-based biotech firm was found to have discredited the industry by Britain's pharmaceutical watchdog, as well as failing to maintain high standards.
The complaint related to four X adverts published by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in June and July 2023, which looked to recruit youngsters aged 12 and over for Moderna's updated mRNA vaccine.
The adverts, which were aimed at youngsters rather than their parents, added: 'All our junior volunteers get a lovely certificate and a 'be part of the research' teddy bear.'
Two separate articles published online also attempted to directly recruit children.
Critics warned that the NextCOVE trial was recruiting at a time when children were deemed at low risk from Covid and were not being prioritised for jabs.
Molly Kingsley, the founder of campaign group UsForThem, said: 'For any pharmaceutical company to effectively bribe children with the offer of free teddy bears to take part in a trial of a product posing a degree of risk to the child is sinister and deeply unsavoury behaviour.
'Moreover, given that by the time of this trial it was well established that Covid posed only minimal clinical risk to healthy children it is hard to see how these trials for otherwise healthy children were ever judged ethical in the first place.'
Under The Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations it is prohibited for incentives or financial inducements to be given to children or their parents.
Pharmaceutical companies are also banned from directly advertising to children and complainants argued that the advert to test a 'new' vaccine made it appear that the jab had already been cleared by regulators.
Esther McVey MP, a former member of the all-party parliamentary group on Covid-19 vaccine damage, said: 'These posts were judged to be an attempt to directly persuade children to join their Covid-19 vaccine trial.
'I think it's fair to say that this shocking behaviour sets a new low for the pharmaceutical industry. Their punishment was a fine of just £44,000 – pocket change to a company of this size.
'This latest ruling comes in a long line of cases which have found major pharmaceutical companies guilty of misleading the public about their Covid vaccine products.'
Moderna was found to have breached four clauses of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) code of practice by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).
The company was rebuked by regulators in October after offering children cash to test its new mRNA-1283 vaccine in the same NextCOVE trial.
Moderna was ordered to pay £14,000 after it emerged that a representative had sent a WhatsApp message offering £1,500 to children, which was described by the PMCPA as 'inappropriate financial inducement.'
The company was also reprimanded in September and August last year for using off label data to promote its Spikevax vaccine at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in April 2022.
Ben Kingsley, the head of legal affairs at UsForThem, added: 'For Moderna executives to claim that images of a smiling schoolgirl holding a teddy bear and a trial certificate were not promotions directed at children is simply disingenuous.
'This is the fourth occasion in as many months that the industry regulator has upheld a string of the most serious possible regulatory findings against Moderna, and yet there has been no meaningful consequence for the company or its executives.
'The Government must surely now ask itself whether Moderna is a suitable company to benefit from hundreds of millions of taxpayer funding for mRNA vaccine development facilities.'
Moderna said it accepted the conclusions of the PMCPA review but argued that it had not approved the adverts or the article.
A spokesperson said: 'The tweets and article in question, published in August 2023, were created and disseminated by third-party organisations and were not approved by Moderna.
'To prevent similar occurrences, we have reinforced our processes for oversight and communication with research sites and third parties. Moderna remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of transparency, quality, and compliance in all of its activities.
'Paediatric trials are required for regulatory approval where new medicines are researched and developed specifically for use in children, addressing their unique physiological needs.'
The Telegraph has contacted Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for comment.
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