Moderna co-founder calls on US politicians and judges to stop questioning science

The co-founder of vaccine-maker Moderna has called on US politicians and judges to stop questioning established science and over-ruling regulators, adding that they risk sowing public confusion that damages people’s health.

Noubar Afeyan told the Financial Times that recent decisions by courts in Texas set bad precedents, referring to the moves to overturn regulatory approval of the abortion pill and strike down key elements of the Affordable Care Act that mandated free access to preventive healthcare.

He said politicians should embrace science rather than questioning experts and promoting “pseudoscience” that could fuel anti-vaccine sentiment in the run-up to next year’s presidential election.

“It is always dangerous and perilous to have politicians deal with adjudicating science,” said Afeyan, who as founder of the biotech incubator Flagship Pioneering has helped launch more than 70 companies during his career.

“Any political confusion that is created and pseudoscience that is put out there that confuses people into not protecting themselves is problematic . . . it is really a major health setback,” he added.

Afeyan said that while courts had their areas of expertise, regulating health and over-ruling specific drug approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration were not among them. Such actions created a level of uncertainty that would undermine efforts by scientists to develop cures for human diseases, he added.

Afeyan made his comments amid increasing concerns among health experts over the willingness of courts to strike down regulatory decisions, and the tendency among politicians to embrace populist causes, including the anti-vaccine movement.

In December, Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida and a potential Republican presidential candidate, ordered a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” with respect to Covid-19 vaccines.

And last week Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent anti-vaccine activist, launched his bid to stand as a presidential candidate for the Democrats. Critics allege that Kennedy is responsible for helping to disseminate a “tidal wave of disinformation” on the internet about Covid vaccines.

Afeyan said he would not comment directly on the move by DeSantis to investigate Covid vaccines but that it was important for people to respect scientific expertise and health guidelines. Anything that discouraged people from protecting themselves was problematic in an environment where there was still a major health risk posed by Covid, he added.

The pharmaceutical industry is becoming increasingly concerned that the culture wars in the US, which blighted the response to the pandemic by fuelling anti-vaccine sentiment, now threaten “regulatory chaos” by encouraging the banning of abortion pills containing mifepristone.

More than 700 executives signed an open letter last month condemning a decision by a federal judge in Texas to overturn the regulatory approval of mifepristone — a drug approved by the FDA more than two decades ago.

“Judicial activism will not stop here,” the letter said. “If courts can overturn drug approvals without regard for science or evidence, or for the complexity required to fully vet the safety and efficacy of new drugs, any medicine is at risk for the same outcome as mifepristone.”

Last year David Ricks, the chief executive of Eli Lilly, warned that a growing climate of “anti-intellectualism” was hampering the global response to Covid, and questioned whether policymakers were capable of preparing the public for the next pandemic.