Moderna is hiking the price of its COVID-19 shot because it faces “increased complexity and risk” as the pandemic stabilizes and the life-saving vaccine pivots from a government-funded product to a commercial one, CEO Stephane Bancel told Congress Wednesday in a Senate hearing on what taxpayers are owed after they support critical medicine.
Mr. Bancel said the National Institutes of Health and Operation Warp Speed let it develop a vaccine faster in 2020 than it would have been able to on its own. Yet he rejected claims he is greedy, saying his Massachusetts company developed its messenger-RNA platform through years of private investment and faces a daunting task once the government stops buying millions of doses.
Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders of Vermont hauled Mr. Bancel to Capitol Hill after the drugmaker said it planned to more than quadruple the price of its vaccine later this year. The government paid about $26 for each of the latest boosters, but the new price will be up to $130. Moderna has pledged to help the uninsured with patient-assistance programs, but lawmakers want to know more about how those will work. Mr. Bancel said his company will partner with community hospitals and homeless shelters in offering the vaccine for free and said it will make sure it doesn’t replicate the mistakes of drugmakers who make their patient-assistance programs too complex.
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