The CEO of pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, said the company is having to “throw away” millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines because “nobody wants them.”
Bancel made the comments during an appearance at the World Economic Forum on Monday, while noting his concerns over the lack of people getting vaccinated and waning immunity among those who have had the shots but declined to get boosters.
The Moderna chief explained that his company has contacted a number of governments across the globe to see if anyone wants to take the vaccines but it has proven unsuccessful.
“We right now have governments—we tried to contact ... through the embassies in Washington. Every country and nobody wants to take them,” he said. “And so the challenge we have right now is very different to the one we had two years ago.”
“The issue in many countries is that people don’t want vaccines,” Bancel added, while referencing populations in countries like China and the United States.
Bancel’s comments come as Moderna is set to release its “superior” Omicron- and subvariant-specific COVID-19 vaccine booster by the fall.
However, deaths from COVID-19 have declined in recent months while hospitalizations remain relatively low. Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccines have remained a polarizing topic amid reports of adverse effects.
During a virtual meeting with health officials from EU members nations including Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Finland, and others, organized by Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski on May 18, officials agreed to write a joint letter to the European Commission regarding the need to renegotiate the vaccine contracts.
“We hope that the discussion with the commission and among member states will allow flexibility in the vaccine agreements,” the joint letter states, adding, “We are also counting on vaccine producers to show understanding to the exceptional challenges that Poland is facing supporting Ukraine and giving shelter to millions of Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war.”
“This puts pressure not only on logistics networks and storage but also has budgetary implications,” the presidents wrote.
Negotiating with the vaccine manufacturers in an effort to amend deals with suppliers could grant member states the right to “re-phase, suspend, or cancel altogether vaccine deliveries with short shelf life,” they noted.
Meanwhile, in another letter, the health ministry of Bulgaria called for an “open dialog” with the commission and pharmaceutical companies, pointing to the fact that the current arrangement leaves member states forced to “purchase quantities of vaccines they don’t need.”