Moderna | Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

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<strong>Company:</strong>
<p>Moderna</p>
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<strong>Year:</strong>
<p>2026 </p>
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<strong>Issue Area:</strong>
<p>Corporate Governance </p>
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<strong>Focus Area:</strong>
<p>Majority Vote </p>
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<strong>Status:</strong>
<p>Filed</p>
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<h2>Resolution Text</h2>
<p><strong>RESOLVED</strong>: Shareholders request that the Board of Directors take each step necessary so that each voting requirement in our charter and bylaws (that is explicit or implicit due to default to state law) that calls for a greater than simple majority vote be replaced by a requirement for a majority of the votes cast for and against applicable proposals, or a simple majority in compliance with applicable laws. </p>
<p><strong>SUPPORTING STATEMENT</strong>:</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>This means the closest standard to a majority of the votes cast for and against such proposals consistent with applicable laws. This proposal includes that Moderna shall state in its governing documents that it shall not have any super-majority voting standards, which includes default super-majority voting standards, upon adoption of this proposal.</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>Shareholders are willing to pay a premium for shares of companies that have excellent corporate governance. The supermajority voting requirements, like those of Moderna, have been found to be one of 6 entrenching mechanisms that are negatively related to company performance according to “What Matters in Corporate Governance” by Lucien Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Allen Ferrell of the Harvard Law School. Supermajority requirements can be used to block proposals supported by most shareowners but opposed by management.<br><br>This proposal topic won from 74% to 88% support at Weyerhaeuser, Alcoa, Waste Management, Goldman Sachs, FirstEnergy and Macy’s. These votes would have been higher than 74% to 88% if more shareholders had access to independent proxy voting advice. </p>
<p dir=”ltr”>This proposal topic received 98% support each in 2024 at annual meetings of Domino’s Pizza, FMC Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Masco Corporation and Power Integrations.</p>

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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> John Chevedden</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Chevedden Corporate Governance</span></div>
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<strong>Company:</strong>
<p>Moderna</p>
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<strong>Year:</strong>
<p>2025 </p>
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<strong>Issue Area:</strong>
<p>Health </p>
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<strong>Focus Area:</strong>
<p>Access & Affordability, Global Health, Pharmaceutical Prices and Access </p>
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<strong>Status:</strong>
<p>Filed</p>
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<h2>Resolution Text</h2>
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<p>RESOLVED, that shareholders of Moderna Inc. (“Moderna” or the “Company”) urge the board of directors to strengthen Moderna’s Human Rights Policy (the “Policy”) by referencing internationally recognized human rights standards, that apply to both its own operations and its suppliers and that includes the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; and by describing a process by which Moderna will conduct human rights due diligence (“HRDD”). This should be prepared at reasonable cost and should omit confidential and proprietary information and be made available to the public on the company’s website.</p>
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<p>SUPPORTING STATEMENT</p>
<p>Article 12.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights “recognize[s] the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”[1] Target 3.8 of Sustainable Development Goal 3 assesses progress toward “access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.”[2] While Moderna mentions the right to health and safety in its code of Ethics and Business conduct it does not reference any human rights frameworks or standards.[3]</p>
<p>The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the “UNGPs”) state that to satisfy their obligation to respect human rights, companies should establish an HRDD process to identify, prevent, mitigate and remedy human rights impacts.[4] Moderna does not appear to have established such a process in the Policy, nor has the Company disclosed any HRIA(s) resulting from HRDD it has conducted. </p>
<p>Moderna has come under fire for potentially violating the human right to health: Amnesty International argued that Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies violated the human right to health by “continu[ing] to obstruct fair access to Covid-19 vaccines by monopolizing technology, blocking and lobbying against the sharing of intellectual property, charging high prices for vaccines, and prioritizing supplies to wealthy countries.”[5] In the COVID-19 context, Human Rights Watch stated, “We are concerned about the public health impacts of Moderna’s stated approach to intellectual property (IP), pricing, and transparency” and urged Moderna to conduct “robust” HRDD.[6]</p>
<p>Disclosure of the results of HRDD is essential. The UNGPs state, “The responsibility to respect human rights requires that business enterprises have in place policies and processes through which they can both know and show that they respect human rights in practice. Showing involves communication, providing a measure of transparency and accountability to individuals or groups who may be impacted and to other relevant stakeholders, including investors.”[7] According to Deloitte, it is not possible for a company to “really commit to respecting and promoting human rights without having full transparency of its human rights impacts.”[8] </p>
<p>Conducting comprehensive HRDD would enable Moderna to identify actual and potential human rights impacts resulting from its operations and products, including those related to the human right to health. Publicly releasing the results would allow stakeholders, including shareholders, to assess Moderna’s human rights performance.</p>
<p>[1] www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7605313/</p>
<p>[2] www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_70_1_E.pdf</p>
<p>[3]  s29.q4cdn.com/435878511/files/doc_downloads/gov_docs/2023/Moderna-Code-of-Ethics-and-Business-Conduct.pdf, at 13</p>
<p>[4]  www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf, at 16</p>
<p>[5] www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/covid-19-investors-in-big-pharma-must-ensure-fair-vaccine-access-for-all-countries/</p>
<p>[6]  www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/12/HRW%20Vaccine%20Letters%20and%20Responses%20%281%29.pdf, at 49</p>
<p>[7]  https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf, at 23-24</p>
<p>[8] https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/services/risk-advisory/blogs/human-rights-due-diligence-in-the-modern-era.html</p>

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<h3>Lead Filer</h3>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Lydia Kuykendal</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Mercy Investment Services</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Laura Krausa</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>CommonSpirit Health</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Timnit Ghermay</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, WA</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Lydia Kuykendal</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes</span></div>
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Resolution Details

Company:

Moderna

Year:

2023

Issue Area:

Health

Focus Area:

Access & Affordability, COVID-19/Coronavirus, Pharmaceutical Patents

Status:

Vote

Vote Percentage:

7.40%

Moderna Covid 19 Vaccine Technology Transfer – Proxy Exempt Solicitation

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Resolution Text

RESOLVED that shareholders of Moderna Inc. (“Moderna”) ask the Board of Directors to commission a third-party report to shareholders, at reasonable expense and omitting confidential and proprietary information, analyzing the feasibility of promptly transferring intellectual property (“IP”) and technical knowledge (“know-how”) to facilitate the production of COVID-19 vaccine doses by additional qualified manufacturers located in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as defined by the World Bank.

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Vaccine access remains inequitable.[1] The limited, unpredictable vaccine supply LMICs received for months after vaccines were first authorized and distributed in high-income countries contributes to continuing disparities nearly two years later.[2] The failure to prioritize vaccine equity creates reputational risk, threatens to hamstring the global economy, and costs Moderna millions of dollars in expenses, “write-downs” and missed opportunities to capture demand when all countries urgently sought doses.[3]

LMICs call for sustainable local manufacturing to ensure timely, reliable access to lifesaving vaccines, addressing delivery issues that impeded national vaccination plans.[4] 120 LMIC manufacturers could produce mRNA vaccines, and at least 6 mRNA vaccines by manufacturers in LMICs are in clinical trials or approved.[5] Moderna’s refusal to share IP and know-how requested by the World Health Organization (WHO) also delays WHO and LMICs’ efforts to develop similar vaccines by at least one year.[6] With Moderna’s support, these manufacturers could produce doses in months, curbing the health and economic consequences of COVID-19 while generating licensing revenues for Moderna.[7]

The company’s “global public health strategy” commitments not to enforce patents for COVID-19 vaccines used in some countries and to build its own manufacturing plant in Kenya are insufficient to resolve vaccine equity issues, and do not enable countries to secure supply independently. Moderna said that it would take up to four years to construct its Kenya plant,[8] a process not yet started a year later.

Moderna faces criticism for abusive patenting practices and profiteering,[9] with all of its profits generated from a vaccine co-developed by the US government using $10 billion in US government funding (including vaccine preorders).[10] This creates a reputational tarnish and could threaten Moderna’s relationship with the US government, which funds several Moderna projects. Indeed, Moderna’s limited patent waiver, lawsuits against competitors, and inventorship dispute with the US government stand in contrast to Moderna’s own reliance on US government-granted permission to use others’ IP.[11]

Moderna’s refusal to share vaccine IP and technical knowledge may also risk increased regulation and oversight. If governments cannot trust Moderna to ensure sustainable, equitable, timely access, they may impose rules impacting the control of pandemic technologies, as some experts propose.[12]

A report analyzing the feasibility of technology transfer could help investors evaluate whether Moderna’s actions are in shareholders’ long-term interest.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

[2] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/global-covid-pandemic-response-bill-gates-partners-00053969

[3] https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2022/Moderna-Reports-Second-Quarter-2022-Financial-Results-and-Provides-Business-Updates/default.aspx; https://www.reuters.com/business/imf-sees-cost-covid-pandemic-rising-beyond-125-trillion-estimate-2022-01-20/; https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-economy-could-have-a-long-case-of-long-covid-11657272619; https://www.wxyz.com/news/people-dealing-with-long-covid-19-symptoms-could-be-impacting-u-s-economy

[4] https://itpcglobal.org/blog/resource/mapping-covid-19-access-gaps-results-from-14-countries-and-territories/

[5] https://www.science.org/content/article/new-crop-covid-19-mrna-vaccines-could-be-easier-store-cheaper-use; https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/indonesia-drug-agency-approves-chinas-walvax-mrna-vaccine-emergency-use-2022-09-29/; https://www.livemint.com/science/health/gennovas-mrna-shot-for-covid-19-approved-11656521513457.html

[6] https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/press-releases/dr-tedros-barkan-seyoum-present-oxfam-shareholder-resolutions-to-urge-moderna-pfizer-and-johnson-johnson-to-address-covid-19-vaccine-inequity/

[7] https://www.keionline.org/35364

[8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/10/07/moderna-vaccine-plant-africa/

[9] https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-01898-3/index.html

[10] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/promising-interim-results-clinical-trial-nih-moderna-covid-19-vaccine; https://www.medicalcountermeasures.gov/app/barda/coronavirus/COVID19.aspx

[11] https://www.keionline.org/37751; https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/26/1119608060/moderna-sues-pfizer-over-covid-19-vaccine-patents; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03535-x

[12] https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/7/e009709

Govern By Majority Vote

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