“This is not the same product,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel Wednesday when asked if the pharmaceutical company would reconsider its plans to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Health Committee, posed the question during the Wednesday hearing. He noted that American taxpayers invested billions into research to make the vaccine and that Bancel and other Moderna executives became billionaires during the pandemic.
“In the pharmaceutical industry today, we are looking at an unprecedented, level of corporate greed,” said Sanders.
Bancel said that Moderna offered the U.S. a “discount” on its mRNA vaccine during the pandemic due to the country’s investment. In a February announcement, the company said that after the U.S. COVID-19 national emergency ends in May, the government will not longer provide vaccines at no cost.
“Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines will continue to be available at no cost for insured people whether they receive them at their doctors’ offices or local pharmacies,” said the statement. “For uninsured or underinsured people, Moderna’s patient assistance program will provide COVID-19 vaccines at no cost.”
However, Sanders argued that patient assistance programs are often poorly organized and difficult to access. He also said the vaccine is expected to cost $130 after the emergency ends, even though it only costs $3 to manufacture.
One of the reasons Bancel gave for increasing the cost of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is reduced demand. As vaccines were first released, vaccination requirements were common and there was a push to vaccinate as many Americans as possible in an effort to cut down the spread and severity of SARS CoV-2.
According to CNBC, “Moderna soared to profitability after the vaccine rollout, reporting $12.2 billion in net income for 2021 after a net loss of $747 million in 2020 while the shots were under development.”
Now that COVID-19 transmission is down, the push to vaccinate has also receded and Bancel said Moderna estimates demand to drop by 90%. Bancel also cited other expected differences in the post-pandemic market, including new risks related to unused doses and warehousing that he said were covered by the U.S. government during the pandemic.
According to the CEO, the “volume of the pandemic gave us economies of scale that we won’t have anymore.”
Sanders also referenced a March 17 letter from the National Institutes of Health that said three scientists from the taxpayer-funded organization are the co-inventors of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Bancel said that Moderna and the NIH “agree to disagree” on that point.
He said that the NIH team provided a “great confirmation” of research that Moderna had been working on for years.
Despite Bancel’s objections, Sanders urged Moderna not to raise prices of the vaccine, arguing that it would cost Americans if Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies are subject to the new cost. Already, millions of Americans struggle to pay prescription drug costs, according to Gallup polls.
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