Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday urged Moderna to not quadruple the worth of its Covid-19 vaccine once distribution of the shots moves to the business market.
In a letter to Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, Sanders called the worth increase “outrageous.” The independent senator from Vermont and incoming chair of the Senate’s health committee said such a steep price increase would make the shots unavailable for tens of millions of uninsured Americans, potentially putting their lives in danger as Covid continues to spread.
Sanders, who has change into an influential national figure after his two unsuccessful bids to win the Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly excoriated the pharmaceutical industry for top drug prices within the U.S. He is anticipated to take a tough line with the industry when he assumes leadership of the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.
Sanders said raising vaccine prices would even have a negative effect on the budgets of Medicaid and Medicare, which can proceed covering the vaccines for gratis to the programs’ beneficiaries. Private medical insurance premiums would also rise as a consequence of a vaccine price hike, Sanders wrote.
“Your decision will cost taxpayers billions of dollars,” Sanders wrote to Bancel.
Bancel told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that Moderna is considering a price within the range of $110 to $130 per Covid vaccine dose when the shots are sold on the business market. The federal government, which has handled procurement and distribution of the vaccines through the emergency phase of the pandemic, currently pays about $26 per vaccine dose.
“I find your decision particularly offensive given the undeniable fact that the vaccine was jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health, a U.S. government agency that’s funded by U.S. taxpayers,” Sanders wrote to Bancel.
Bancel told the Journal that he thought the worth is consistent with the vaccine’s value. Pfizer can be considering raising the worth of its Covid vaccine to $110 to $130 per dose.
Dr. Ashish Jha, who heads the White House Covid task force, told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in August that the administration plans to maneuver the vaccines to the business market sometime in 2023. Which means patients would receive the vaccine like every other medical treatment with the fee depending on their medical insurance plan.
Through the pandemic, the federal government has required all health-care providers participating within the vaccination campaign to supply the shots to patients at no cost no matter their medical insurance status.
Moderna’s Covid vaccine is the corporate’s only commercially available product. The Boston biotech booked a profit of $12.2 billion in 2021, the primary yr of the vaccination campaign, and one other $6.9 billion through September 2022.
CNBC reported in March that Bancel had sold greater than $400 million in Moderna stock through the pandemic.
