Prices For COVID-19 Vaccines Are Starting To Come Into Focus

Enlarge this image

Tony Potts, a 69-year-old retiree in Ormond Beach, Fla., received his first Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shot on Tuesday as part of the company’s phase 3 clinical trial.

NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Coronavirus Live Updates
COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Heads To Widespread Testing In U.S.

The federal government has been announcing procurement agreements over the past few months with pharmaceutical companies that are part of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump Administration’s push to have a vaccine widely available by January. So far, the prices implied by publicly released deals work out to between $4 and $20 per dose.

Moderna’s procurement contract with the United States hasn’t been announced, but a company spokesperson told NPR in an email that it is «committed to responsible pricing.

Pfizer’s agreement with the federal government is the most lucrative to date. The government agreed to buy 100 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, being developed with German biotech firm BioNTech, for $1.95 billion. That works out to about $20 per dose.

Since Pfizer’s contract did not include research funding from the federal government, it’s not under the same pressure as some of the other vaccine makers to keep prices low for U.S. taxpayers.

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are expected to require two-doses to protect against the coronavirus.

On July 21, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., asked vaccine manufacturers at a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing whether they would commit to selling their vaccines «at cost, meaning for no profit.

She turned to Moderna’s president, Stephen Hoge, first. «We will not sell it at cost, he replied.

«You will what? she asked.

«We will not sell it at cost, he repeated. «No, ma’am.

Merck also declined to make this pledge during the hearing. AstraZeneca said its existing deal with the U.S. didn’t generate a profit, and Johnson & Johnson said it wouldn’t make a profit «during the pandemic.

Moderna views pricing of its coronavirus vaccine in two stages: the pandemic period and the endemic period, CEO Bancel said Wednesday during the conference call.

«At Moderna, like many public health experts, we believe that SARS-CoV-2 virus is not going away, and that there will be a need to vaccinate people or give them a boost for many years to come, he told investors.

During the pandemic period, he said the vaccine would be priced «well below value, but after, it would be more in line «with other innovative commercial vaccines. That means prices could go up.

That two-tiered pricing outlook highlights the U.S. government’s misstep in failing to add reasonable pricing clauses to its contracts with drugmakers, says Kathryn Ardizzone, a lawyer with Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit public interest group that works on intellectual property issues.

«The reality is that this is not just a free market arrangement, she says. «The U.S. government has put up a billion dollars towards the development of the vaccine, and in doing so, should have realized that it has significant leverage and negotiating contract terms that are favorable to the American public and worldwide.

Not everyone agrees. Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason University who specializes in intellectual property, says efforts to control vaccine and drug prices during the COVID-19 pandemic could have ripple effects in the biopharmaceutical industry, ultimately stifling innovation.

He says it’s a slippery slope to say taxpayers are paying twice for pharmaceuticals because they also financed part of the research. «Because the government is involved in everything in our society, the principles we’re establishing would justify the government to dictate prices on not just medicines but also on all products and services from automobiles to smartphones, he says.

It’s not clear exactly how much of the bill taxpayers are footing for Moderna’s vaccine. Under its contract with BARDA, Moderna is required to regularly disclose the proportion of its funding that comes from the federal government. Public Citizen and Knowledge Ecology International say it hasn’t.

«It appears to be violating that contract and implicitly downplayed the critical role of federal scientists and its press releases, Rizvi said. «This is shocking in some way, but it’s also just another example of the erasure of publicly funded science that large pharmaceutical corporations often do.

BARDA Acting Director Gary Disbrow, replied to the groups Thursday night.

«The trust of the American people is vital in the all-of-America response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Disbrow wrote in the response, stressing his colleague’s commitment to transparency regarding vaccine development. «The contracting officer responsible for the Moderna contract has been in touch with the company and will ensure their compliance with their contractual requirements.