Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel on Thursday shrugged off the Biden administration’s support for suspending patents for coronavirus vaccines, saying drug firms in other countries would struggle to mass-produce a rival to the blockbuster vaccine that has made his company a household name.
Speaking during a first-quarter earnings call, the head of the Cambridge biotech said he “didn’t lose a minute of sleep” after the administration said it would endorse the temporary waiver of patents to bolster vaccine production in developing nations as a way to hasten an end to the pandemic.
Although biopharma executives and lobbyists for the industry said the waiver would undermine US innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, Bancel said the move “doesn’t change anything for Moderna.”
