Moderna CEO defends $130 US COVID vaccine price in Senate hearing
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[March 23, 2023]
By Patrick Wingrove and Leroy Leo
(Reuters) -Moderna Inc's chief executive on Wednesday defended the
company's plan to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine, telling a
U.S. Senate committee hearing it will no longer have the economies of
scale from government procurement when the shots move into the private
market.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel was called to testify after the company
flagged plans to raise the vaccine's price to as much as $130 per dose,
drawing the ire of Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs
the influential Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
(HELP).
Sanders on Wednesday asked Bancel to reconsider the price hikes, saying
they could make it unaffordable for millions of Americans and were
unjustified given the government's research contributions and $1.7
billion in assistance in developing the vaccine. His comments echoed his
January letter to Bancel.
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Bancel said Moderna's next COVID-19 shots will be more expensive because
they will be sold in single-dose vials or pre-filled syringes for the
commercial market versus the 10-dose vials it has sold to the government
up until now.
The government in May plans to end the COVID public health emergency,
putting much of the vaccine purchasing in the hands of the private
sector.
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![](../images/032323PIX/health89.jpg)
CEO of Moderna Stephane Bancel looks up
at the session "State of the Pandemic" during the World Economic
Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd
Wiegmann/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/23/images/ads/current/railer_norapeters_sda_LCHSBOARD_2023.png) Bancel also said the company
anticipated that it would likely make more doses than needed to
ensure it had enough for the private market and had calculated
wasted shots 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."
Moderna in February forecast $5 billion in COVID vaccine sales this
year, far less than the $18.4 billion windfall in 2022, due to
decreasing demand for the shots.
Sanders has for years railed against high U.S. drug prices and
backed Medicare-for-all. His chairmanship of the HELP committee has
further put drug companies in his crosshairs.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru and Patrick
Wingrove in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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