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.
As the U.S. plans yearly booster campaigns, Mr. Bancel said Moderna will have to handle logistics, doctor networks and the switch from a 10-dose vial to single-vial doses on its own while accepting the cost of wasted shots.
“In the endemic market, Moderna will take that risk and that cost,” Mr. Bancel told the Senate Health Committee. “We are losing economies of scale.”
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.
Mr. Sanders, an independent and hero to the left, congratulated the company for rapidly developing a vaccine. He swiftly pivoted to a scolding, saying Moderna got a major boost from taxpayer-funded research in developing the vaccine.
Mr. Sanders urged Moderna not to raise the cost at all.
“We are looking at an unprecedented amount of corporate greed, and that is certainly true with Moderna,” Mr. Sanders said. “While Moderna may wish to rewrite history, it is widely acknowledged that both Moderna and the NIH created this vaccine together.”
COVID-19 vaccines will likely transition to the regular market this fall when regulators will look to authorize reformulated boosters to combat circulating strains of the virus. Insurers will be forced to absorb the increased cost, which could raise premiums.
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.
Moderna became a household name during the pandemic as its vaccine turned into the dominant coronavirus-fighting tool alongside shots from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech.
More than 250 million doses of Moderna shots have been administered in the U.S. alone.
The vaccines use messenger RNA, which injects a snippet of genetic code — encased in a bubble of fat — to instruct the body on how to recognize and combat the virus. Scientists credit the shots with saving millions of lives.
Yet Pfizer landed on Congress’ radar in October when the drugmaker told investors that a potential U.S. list price between $110 and $130 per single dose vial “reflects the value of the vaccine and as well the thresholds for what would be considered a highly cost-effective vaccine.”
Moderna then floated a similar price increase, inviting scrutiny from Congress.
Moderna earlier this year made a $400 million “catch-up payment” to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which will be shared with two academic institutions, for royalty rights related to a molecular technique it borrowed from the agency in making the vaccine.
Senate Democrats said Wednesday that Moderna still has a special responsibility to keep its shots affordable because the company received about $10 billion in government support to boost manufacturing capacity, execute large-scale clinical trials and secure doses.
Mr. Bancel told the committee the fundamentals of the vaccine were developed by Moderna over the past decade.
“We made these investments before most people had heard about mRNA,” he said.
He also said Moderna discounted the cost of its doses in the early stages to pay back the government for its support.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, pointed to the vast return on investment the U.S. received from the rapid development of the vaccine. He added he worries the committee is sending a hostile signal to future government partners in the drug industry.
“This is more like a show trial and a public shaming than a fact-finding mission,” he said.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.