A COVID-19 Vaccine Could Cost You Four Times As Much Soon — Here’s Why
A leading drugmaker’s plan to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine when the public health emergency ends has not gone over well on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers criticized the company’s top executive in a hearing this week.
That company, Moderna, is expected to raise the price of its COVID-19 vaccine booster to $130 per dose when the health emergency ends in May, The Hill reported. That’s up from a current cost of about $26 per dose.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel appeared before Congress this week to explain the company’s decision and got an earful from lawmakers.
“I would hope very much you would reconsider that decision [because it] would cost the taxpayers of this country billions of dollars,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), told Bancel during the hearing.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) also chimed in, telling Bancel that more than one-quarter of Americans “struggle to pay” for their prescription medications.
“These same Americans are the taxpayers who are footing the bill for research and drug development that companies like Moderna are benefiting from,” Baldwin said.
Moderna Recieved $1.7 Billion in Grant Funding, CEO Says it Returned $2.9 Billion
Indeed, Moderna received nearly $1 billion from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for vaccine development and trials, according to The Hill.
Bancel conceded that his company got a boost from the U.S. government in developing its vaccine, which ranks second behind Pfizer’s among the most administered in the country. But he also pointed out the financial role Moderna played.
“The U.S. government gave us and four other vaccine companies funding to accelerate clinical trials,” Bancel said. “While the government provided $1.7 billion in grant funding, Moderna returned $2.9 billion.”
The Moderna CEO also explained his company’s reasoning behind the price hike, telling the committee that its next COVID-19 shots will be more expensive because they’ll be sold in single-dose vials or pre-filled syringes for the commercial market vs. the 10-dose vials it has sold to the government, Reuters reported.
In addition, Bancel said Moderna anticipates that it will likely make more doses than needed to ensure it has enough for the private market. The cost of wasted vaccines has also been calculated into the price.
“On top of all this, we’re expecting a 90% reduction in demand,” Bancel said. “As you can see, we’re losing economies of scale.”
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In February, Moderna forecast $5 billion in COVID vaccine sales for 2023 — a steep drop from the $18.4 billion it raked in last year.
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