You propose to make vaccine unaffordable: US Senator Bernie Sanders urges Moderna not to hike Covid shot price five fold

Washington: US senator Bernie Sanders has sent a letter to Moderna Inc to halt its plan to increase price of Covid-19 vaccine in the country as it could make the shot unaffordable for millions of Americans.

In a letter addressed to Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel, Sanders said that raising prices of Covid-19 shots would be particularly egregious after the US government provided around $1.7 billion to fund the development of the vaccine.

“You propose to make the vaccine unaffordable for the residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible,” wrote Sanders, who is set to become chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions later this month.

“That is not acceptable,” he added.

Sanders further said, “Your decision will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.”

He said that raising vaccine prices would also have a negative effect on the budgets of Medicaid and Medicare, which will continue covering the vaccines at no cost to the programs’ beneficiaries. Private health insurance premiums would also rise as a consequence of a vaccine price hike, he added.

I sent a letter today to the CEO of Moderna with a simple message: In the midst of a public health crisis, quadrupling the price of a publicly-funded COVID-19 vaccine is unacceptable corporate greed. pic.twitter.com/gi2gVbPSwZ

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 10, 2023

Moderna to hike price of Covid shot five fold

Moderna has not settled on a price yet, however, in an interview to DailyMail, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said that the drug company will be "going up little bit" to be priced in the "same ballpark" as its rival Pfizer's when it goes on the open market this year.

As per the report, if the change in price comes into effect, people in the US will have to pay around $130 for Moderna's vaccine, which is estimated to cost just $1.18 to make, representing a 10,000 percent markup.

The vaccine is currently sold for around $26 a dose.

"It's [the price] going up a little bit because the previous price was massively discounted... we got help from the US government. When we did the first contract with the US, we proposed an offer to them [with] a big discount," Bancel said, adding, "In the US it's $26 now. That was the discounted price, it's going to go up. Pfizer said they’re going to price it between $110 and $130. We’d want to be the same ballpark as that."

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