Senators To Grill Moderna CEO On Its Four-Fold Price Hike Of COVID-19 Vaccine That Feds Helped Make

Prominent drugmakers want to more than quadruple the price of their COVID-19 vaccines when the shots transition to the commercial market later this year, sparking a showdown with congressional lawmakers who say Pfizer and Moderna benefited from taxpayer largesse and are now gouging the public to pad handsome profits, the Washington Times reports.

Senate Health Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders will grill Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel over the proposed hike at a highly anticipated hearing this week that will underscore tensions between Big Pharma and lawmakers outraged over ballooning drug prices.

Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist from Vermont, is angry because Moderna benefited from collaboration with the federal government to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to market but is now planning to charge $110 to $130 per dose once federally purchased stockpiles are used up — a steep increase from the $15 to $26 it charged the government earlier in the pandemic.

Sanders says it costs $2.85 to make each dose or 2.2% of what Moderna plans to charge.

{Matzav.com}