Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel will testify before the Senate health committee in March over the corporate’s price for its Covid-19 vaccine when the shots are sold on the private market.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the health panel, confirmed in a press release on Wednesday that Bancel would seem at a hearing titled: “Taxpayers Paid Billions For It: So Why Would Moderna Consider Quadrupling the Price of the COVID Vaccine?”
Bancel will testify at 10 a.m. ET on March 22.
The Moderna CEO stirred controversy last month when he said the corporate could increase the worth of the shots to $110 to $130 a dose, significantly higher than the $26 the U.S. government pays for the omicron boosters. Sanders sent a letter to the CEO calling the proposed price hike “outrageous.”
Moderna, in a press release Wednesday, said it would provide the vaccines to the uninsured for free of charge through a patient assistance program.
“For uninsured or underinsured people, Moderna’s patient assistance program will provide COVID-19 vaccines for free of charge,” the corporate said.
Sanders, in a letter to Bancel last month, slammed the proposed price hike as “outrageous” since the vaccine was developed in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health using taxpayer money.
“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.
Sanders said raising the vaccine price would have a negative effect on the budgets of Medicare and Medicaid and can increase private medical insurance premiums, but he said the uninsured would feel the best impact.
“Perhaps most importantly, the quadrupling of costs will make the vaccine unavailable for thousands and thousands of uninsured and underinsured Americans who won’t find a way to afford it,” Sanders said. “How lots of these Americans will die from Covid-19 consequently of limited access to those lifesaving vaccines?”
Bancel sold greater than $400 million in company stock from the beginning of the pandemic through March 2022. The Covid vaccine is currently Moderna’s only commercially available product.
The federal government has guaranteed free Covid vaccines for everybody within the country no matter insurance status because the shots rolled out in December 2020. The vaccines will remain free for individuals who have Medicare, Medicaid and personal insurance under the Reasonably priced Care Act even after the federal Covid immunization program ends.
The U.S. still has 120 million omicron boosters that have not been used. The uninsured will proceed to have access to those shots free of charge, however it’s unclear how long the availability will last.
When the federal supply runs out, uninsured adults can have to pay the complete price for the shots. The White House has said it’s developing plans to assist.
There may be a free federal vaccine program for kids whose families or caretakers cannot afford the shots.
