Moderna - Bigger Than You Know
The Truth Behind Moderna's Billions
On December 18, 2020, Moderna Therapeutics became the second manufacturer to gain approval for its COVID-19 vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration after a year since Chinese authorities revealed the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus back in December 2019.1
The news followed a sequence victories for the company. Moderna shares were up 434% by the end of 2020, all the while the pandemic threw the mainstream economy in the U.S. and around the world in a downward spiral (unemployment, number of jobs losses, and GDP visuals).8
Moderna quickly took center stage and gained notoriety for its advancements in fighting the pandemic, boasting a vaccine that had an effectiveness rate of 94.5 percent.9
But despite of how highly we might think of the company right now, in reality, Moderna was nothing more than a startup until the pandemic. According to a Wall Street Journal article published before the pandemic, Moderna Therapeutics had started with a mere 2 million dollar investment. But, with the help of the federal government, Moderna has been able to become the most valued biotech company in the industry (visual of Moderna’s current valuation).
While the social, health, and economic consequences of the pandemic have been devastating (visual of social unrest, number of deaths due to covid, and number of job businesses closed), others have massively profited from the novel coronavirus (visual of the growth of the 1% and/or rise in stock of big corporations). Moderna has been endowed with this unprecedented crisis, all the while we have forgotten about all of the controversies and issues surrounding the company.
Moderna - Bigger Than You Know