Now that the COVID-19 public health emergency is coming to an end and the government will stop covering the cost of COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots, Moderna is planning to raise the price of its vaccines significantly. Senator Bernie Sanders’ HELP Committee is holding a hearing on Moderna’s pricing of these vaccines.
Make no mistake, COVID-19 vaccines cost almost nothing to manufacture, about $3 a vaccine. The big cost of tbe vaccjnes is for the research and development. And, while there are ongoing costs as the virus mutates, to date, taxpayers have funded a significant share of the research and development costs.
Over the last few years, mRNA COVID vaccines have saved millions of lives. Not only did our government fund a large share of their development costs, it paid for them at a bulk price so that Americans who wanted the vaccine did not face financial barriers. Now, with the end of the public health emergency, Americans will be forced to pay for these vaccines outright or through higher insurance premiums and copays.
Moderna says it will raise the price of its COVID vaccines to as high as $130, a price that will be unaffordable for millions of Americans. Many Americans will die or get very sick as a result.
Moderna claims higher vaccine prices support ongoing research and development costs, which are several billion dollars. It says its patient assistance program will cover costs for those who can’t afford the vaccine. But, a patient assistance program is no substitute for a fairly priced vaccine. Most people are not able to navigate through the administrative hurdles these programs pose.
For sure, the COVID-19 vaccines have value. But, that is no justification for hiking the price of a drug every American needs to protect themselves from the sometimes deadly consequences of the COVID-19 virus. Moreover, government scientists and taxpayers contributed billions of dollars to the development of these vaccines.
Moderna contributed to the vaccine’s research and development, but it was hardly the sole inventor. Moderna has tried to bury the fact that researchers at the National Institutes of Health invented a critical part of the vaccine.
Moderna’s CEO and other executives are now billionaires, and Moderna has raked in tens of billions of dollars in profits from the COVID vaccines. Now, Moderna plans to hike prices, which is its right under the law. It’s due time our government ended that right and set fair drug prices in the US, as governments do in virtually every other wealthy country.
Congress should not allow pharmaceutical companies to set prices for any drugs, let alone life-saving drugs. By so doing, Congress discriminates against Americans with low incomes who desperately need these drugs. Until Congress takes charge of drug pricing, our government should continue buying vaccines for Americans and providing them free of charge to ensure everyone has access to them.
Here’s more from Just Care:
Nationalize the pharmaceutical industry so these greedy assholes have no more influence and can no longer enrich themselves.