In the shadowed halls of Big Pharma, trust has always been fragile. But now, Moderna, the US biotech titan, stands accused of crossing an unthinkable line — dangling cash and toys before children to lure them into Covid booster trials.
According to a chilling report by The Telegraph, Moderna faces possible suspension — or even expulsion — from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), just a year after joining. A ruling is expected any day now, and it could make Moderna only the tenth company in 40 years to be banished for betrayal of the public’s trust.
The UK’s own watchdog, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), slammed Moderna’s practices as “unacceptable,” warning that they have left deep scars on the pharmaceutical industry’s already battered reputation.
In a damning October 2024 finding, Moderna was fined £14,000 after investigators discovered that the company offered £1,500 to minors — through casual WhatsApp messages — to participate in the NextCOVE Covid booster trial. Though Moderna later slashed the reward to £185, some clinics kept whispering the original bribe to desperate families.
The PMCPA made it clear: such a sum wasn’t a reimbursement. It was bait.
And it didn’t end with money. Moderna was fined an additional £44,000 after British regulators found the company using certificates and teddy bears as bait to recruit children as young as 12. Promotional articles — some co-written by a senior Moderna employee and former vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi — were pushed out without even mentioning Moderna’s fingerprints behind them.
The deception went even deeper. While Moderna claimed ignorance until January 2024, leaked evidence revealed they were warned five months earlier — in August 2023 — by the parents’ rights group UsForThem. They knew. And they stayed silent.
“This shows just how easily Moderna chose profit over the health and innocence of our children,” Molly Kingsley, founder of UsForThem, told The Telegraph. “They trampled over the very safeguards meant to hold them accountable.”
The dark irony? Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine itself carries a known risk of painful side effects in minors — and in rare cases, dangerous heart conditions like myocarditis and pericarditis.
What price can you put on a child’s trust? For Moderna, it was £1,500 and a teddy bear.
