Moderna Offered Children £1,500 to Enroll in COVID Booster Shot Trial

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), an organization responsible for overseeing the marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies in the United Kingdom, criticized Moderna, Inc. for sending an unauthorized WhatsApp message that proposed a payment of £1,500 (about $2,000) to children for participating in a clinical trial for its COVID-19 booster shot.¹

Complaint Filed Against Moderna for Ethics Violation

A complaint on behalf of Children’s COVID Vaccines Advisory Council (CCVAC), a group of health professionals and academics, who have concerns over the use of COVID shots in healthy children, was filed with PMCPA. Moderna Biotech U.K. Ltd. was cited for offering £1,500 to children 12 to 18 years old to enroll in a COVID shot clinical trial in 2023. The trial, named NextCOVE, recruited participants aged 12 and older from several centers across the U.K., United States and Canada.²

The complaint stated:

this amount seems much higher than what would be considered a reasonable reimbursement and therefore would contravene clinical trial regulations. The Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations (2004) explicitly prohibit the giving of incentives or financial inducements to children… or their parents.³