Biden’s beef with Moderna

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Mar 24, 2023 View in browser   By Carmen Paun, Ben Leonard, Ruth Reader and Erin Schumaker WEEKEND READ Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel faced his Senate nemesis, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), this week on Capitol Hill. | AP President Joe Biden didn’t rush to Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel’s defense this week as the Covid-19 vaccine maker faced accusations of greed from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Capitol Hill. It indicated how much the White House’s relationship has deteriorated with the company whose product has saved millions of lives, marring one of the most successful public-private partnerships in U.S. history, reports POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn and Lauren Egan. The drugmaker and the government have repeatedly clashed over the price the U.S. should pay for Moderna’s vaccines. They also have argued over the company’s responsibility to ensure that people with low incomes in the U.S. and abroad have access to the shots. Inside the administration, Biden officials openly complain about Moderna’s hardball negotiation tactics and characterize its representatives as difficult to deal with. A Moderna spokesperson defended the company’s work during the pandemic, saying in a statement that “we value our relationship with the U.S. government” and would look for future opportunities to collaborate. In his testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Sanders chairs, Bancel thanked the government for its support and said Moderna had provided its vaccines so far at a “discount” — though he noted “we were under no obligation to do so.” Bancel has also promised that unininsured Americans won’t have to pay for Moderna’s Covid jabs. But he didn’t explain how the company would ensure that those vaccines would continue to be free or give ground in the company’s dispute with the White House about how indebted the company should be for the help it got in developing the Covid vaccine.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C. | Shawn Zeller This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Zooming much? Neuroscientists have found that stress hormones rise in people who spend a lot of time in video call meetings with large groups of colleagues, according to Eileen McNeely, founder of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Ruth, who breaks down TikTok CEO Shou Chew's grilling on Capitol Hill yesterday and lawmakers' concerns about national security threats and what they see as the site’s corrupting influence on young people. Listen to today’s Pulse Check podcast   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     WORLD VIEW HIV positive orphans take antiretroviral drugs in Uganda. | Getty Images Don’t doubt the U.S. commitment to the fight against HIV and AIDS, despite President Joe Biden’s modest proposed cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. That’s according to Atul Gawande, the Harvard professor who now leads global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development. “This is not a rollback on the focus of HIV/AIDS,” Gawande said during an event sponsored by the Meridian diplomacy center Thursday. Biden wants to reduce PEPFAR funding in fiscal 2024 by $25 million compared with the $4.7 billion enacted for this fiscal year. Wider angle: Gawande said a fuller picture of the administration’s global health funding proposal reveals Biden’s commitment. For example, the U.S. still plans to put $2 billion into the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, he said. Gawande also pointed to Biden’s $20 million request for the Global Health Worker Initiative, with an aim to reduce the shortage of health workers in developing countries. “There’s a recognition that we cannot make any of our programs — the HIV program, the malaria program, child survival — succeed when the core base of health workers was decimated during the pandemic,” Gawande said.   Follow us on Twitter Ben Leonard @_BenLeonard_ Ruth Reader @RuthReader Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

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