Moderna will double the price of its Covid shot to match rival Pfizer, DailyMail.com can reveal.
CEO Stéphane Bancel said the cost of Moderna’s Covid vaccine “will go up a bit” to be “in the same range” as Pfizer’s when it goes on the open market this year.
Americans can expect to pay about $130 for the vaccine, which currently sells for $26 per dose and is estimated to cost just $1.18 to manufacture.
Moderna earned an estimated $39 billion last year, and Pfizer sold its Covid vaccines to the government in multimillion-dollar deals that expire this year.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel has announced that his company will increase the price of its Covid injection five times to match rival Pfizer’s offer of $110-$130 per vaccine
Mr Bancel told DailyMail.com: “It’s going up a bit because the previous price has been reduced a lot… we had help from the US government. When we signed the first contract with the US, we gave them made an offer [with] a hefty discount.’
“It’s now $26 in the US, that was the discount price, it’s going up. Pfizer said they’ll cost it between $110 and $130.
“We want to be the same ballpark.”
Pfizer was heavily criticized when it announced plans in October to raise the price of its injection to $130 once the government used up the doses it had bought.
The upcoming price jump is a more than 10,000 percent premium compared to the estimated $1.18 it will cost companies to develop the shot.
Moderna previously considered raising the retail price from $82 to $100 per dose.
Bancel appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Saturday, where he met the president of Jefferson Health, Dr. Stephen Klasko on Moderna’s joint venture with drug giant Merck to develop personalized cancer vaccines
Democrats accuse Pfizer of “sheer and deadly greed” over plan to quadruple cost of its Covid injection next year
Democrats have attacked Pfizer over its plan to quadruple the price of its Covid shot next year – describing the company as “pure and deadly greed”.
Since the pandemic, vaccines have been free for Americans regardless of insurance status.
In July 2022, the US government awarded a $1.74 billion contract to secure more than 65 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.
When it runs out, negotiating the cost of the vaccine will soon be left to insurance companies and private buyers — in the absence of the federal government buying extra doses at a fair price.
Insurance premiums will cover the price increase, meaning Americans won’t actually pay out of pocket, but it will still drive up premiums everywhere.
Mr. Bancel’s comments confirmed lawmakers’ fears that Pfizer’s price hike would prompt other Covid-shot manufacturers to raise their prices as well, making the vaccine unaffordable for the uninsured and raising premiums for those on welfare.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Vermont’s Peter Welch accused Pfizer of “improper greed” and “sheer and deadly greed.” wrote a scathing letter to CEO Albert Bourla last month, urging him to change course.
Moderna was projected to bring in between $18 billion and $19 billion from Covid vaccine deals in each of the past two years, a massive increase from 2020 when it brought in $803 million.
Meanwhile, rival Pfizer was predicted to generate more than $100 billion in sales last year and $81.2 billion in 2021. Those numbers add to the $40 billion a year it earned in previous years.
The Biden administration’s Covid funding ends. Congress has objected to White House calls for increased federal funding for new vaccines, research and development, treatments and testing materials.
Mr Bancel, whose net worth is $5.7 billion, told DailyMail.com that Moderna’s Covid shots would be in the ‘same ballpark’ as rival vaccine maker Pfizer
The federal government has spent a whopping $30 billion on Covid vaccines since the first became available in late December 2020, purchasing a total of 1.2 billion doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines combined.
This total includes the costs of the development and mass production of the bivalent vaccines that target the original and omicron strains of Covid. However, these boosters were met with less than stellar enthusiasm.
Fewer than 14 percent of eligible Americans age five and older received a bivalent booster shot, compared to a whopping 73 percent who completed the original two-shot regimen.
Health officials are struggling to find support for the latest offensive as the population grows weary of all things Covid.
The Biden administration has redoubled efforts to encourage apathetic Americans to get the overhaul, announcing a six-week blitz in November aimed at “reaching out to seniors and the communities hardest hit by Covid is to make it easier.” to be grafted and raised. awareness through paid media”.
It comes after Pfizer predicted $15 billion in annual sales by 2030 based on its payouts.
Mr. Bancel made the comments at Saturday’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, talking about Moderna’s joint venture with drug giant Merck to develop personalized cancer vaccines.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
