The U.S. government received hundreds of millions of dollars from vaccine manufacturer Moderna, according to a newly disclosed contract.
Moderna agreed to pay the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to license spike protein technology that the company used in its COVID-19 vaccine, according to the contract.
For years, Moderna resisted acknowledging the work by government researchers on the spike protein but relented in late 2021. Moderna announced the contract during an earnings call on Feb. 23.
Moderna stated that it provided a “catch-up payment” of $400 million to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the NIH, under the agreement.
The newly disclosed contract states that Moderna would pay the NIH a “noncreditable, nonrefundable royalty in the amount of Four Hundred Million dollars.”
Portions that would confirm Moderna’s statement that the company would pay “low single digit royalties” on future sales of its COVID-19 vaccines are redacted.
The 34-page contract, which The Epoch Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, has key sections regarding future royalties redacted.
One section starts, “The licensee agrees to pay to the NIAID earned royalties on net sales … as follows.” But the rest of the section is redacted.
The NIH cited as the reason for the redactions an exemption to the act that enables agencies to withhold “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”
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