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Medicine

Moderna CEO Defends Pricing Plans for Covid-19 Shot (wsj.com) 128

Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel pushed back against criticism of the company's pricing plans for its Covid-19 vaccine at Wall Street Journal Health Forum. From the report: U.S. politicians including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Peter Welch (D., Vt.) have questioned the company's strategy around commercial pricing, which could be unveiled in the coming months. Moderna received funding from the U.S. government related to development of its Covid-19 vaccine. The chief executive said the company's mRNA platform was funded by investors, not the government, and the public funding accelerated development of the vaccine. "We didn't get a penny,â Mr. Bancel said of Moderna's fundraising efforts, adding that the company unsuccessfully sought funding in the first half of 2020 from countries and foundations to help with manufacturing. He said a company plant was built before the pandemic by private funding.

Moderna has said it is considering pricing its Covid-19 vaccine in a range of $110 to $130 a dose in the U.S. when it shifts from government contracting to commercial distribution of the shots. Mr. Bancel on Monday declined to say what the price will be. He said the company has plans so that the vaccine won't cost anything to individuals. After promising early-stage data of the shot came out, Moderna raised money, which it put toward manufacturing doses of the vaccine, still without knowing whether it would work, Mr. Bancel said. The company worked with suppliers to increase manufacturing, he said.

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Moderna CEO Defends Pricing Plans for Covid-19 Shot

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  • by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Wednesday March 08, 2023 @02:26PM (#63353865)
    Maybe it's time to consider the French solution to these Oligarchs.
    • Maybe it's time to consider the French solution to these Oligarchs.

      There won't be a single stink raised over this. A substantial portion of the US population didn't even want the Covid shots when they were free. Of the folks who do want booster #... uh... what number are we up to now anyway? Yeah, those people who have insurance won't notice a difference, and those who don't have insurance are used to getting fucked in the ass by the for-profit healthcare industry anyway at this point.

    • Isn't this a shot that has a limited shelf life, has very particular temperature requirements, and is a bit more complex than simply pouring compounds into a vat, stirring it up and putting it in a tablet?

      Seriously, they are talking LIST PRICE, insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmacies will pay significantly less than that, and the vast, VAST majority of Americans will pay $0 out of pocket as their insurance company picks up the (reduced) bill. The poor/uninsured can go to gov't funded clinics, or go t

  • Seriously, how can they make a case for that pricing when so many won't take them when offered for free? I am up to date on my shots but will wait and see when fall rolls around. My annual flu shot is at no cost to me.
    • by ranton ( 36917 )

      My annual flu shot is at no cost to me.

      If your annual flu shot is free to you, it means your insurance company is paying for you. Otherwise you would have paid $25-$110 for the vaccine depending on which of the nine flu vaccines approved for the 2022/23 season you took. If you have insurance, your Covid vaccine is likely to be no additional cost over your insurance premiums as well.

      • Precisely why I said I'll wait and see. My insurance (medicare) has not stated a position of which I am aware but if the goal is continued vaccine uptake they will address this. My peer group is interested in what they have to say, as with annual flu shots.
    • I am up to date on my shots but will wait and see when fall rolls around. My annual flu shot is at no cost to me.

      Just guessing, but if the COVID booster is considered "preventative", like the Flu shot is, then it will probably be covered by insurance, like the Flu shot is.

    • by edwdig ( 47888 )

      Seriously, how can they make a case for that pricing when so many won't take them when offered for free? I am up to date on my shots but will wait and see when fall rolls around. My annual flu shot is at no cost to me.

      They're charging your insurance company about the same price for the flu shot as they're proposing for the COVID shot. Your pharmacist will give you the COVID shot for free and bill your insurance company for it, just like they do for flu shot.

      This is how for profit healthcare with a private insurance system works. The cost of everything is massively inflated because there are many layers of people in the chain that all need to make a profit. There's a reason most countries don't do it.

  • by Bugler412 ( 2610815 ) on Wednesday March 08, 2023 @02:34PM (#63353905)
    The funding provided by the government around the time of H1N1 in the early 2000's to develop the MRNA technique in the first place.
    • Which is why we've had all those mRNA vaccines since then right? Oh wait no, because the government funding 23 years ago did not provide a 20 year long R&D fund.

      There's a lot to be angry about, e.g. that if they are pricing the vaccine at over $100 in the US you know the real price is closer to $10, because that's US medicine for you, but the reality is if you want socialised development of medicine then you should do that, and actively run with it, not rely on a for profit company who mixes investments

      • This is an inherent problem with the way the US government doles out "help" in the way of funding for special problems. Thus far it's all pretty much been, "Big business screams, US government sucks its dick, hands it billions, kowtows a bit, then backs away groveling." At some point, there should probably be a step added in there. "hands in billions if it signs contracts to guarantee either complete payback, or profit sharing on results, legally binding, in perpetuity." You wanna see lower taxes? Have thes

      • by edwdig ( 47888 )

        SARS-CoV-1 sparked the research into coronaviruses. We spent years on that and that's how we figured out to focus on the spike protein. By the time we figured it out, SARS-CoV-1 died out on its own. mRNA research has been going on for a while too, but not necessarily directly related to the coronavirus work. We've been fairly confident in the mRNA approach for a while, but didn't have a good test case until SARS-CoV-2 hit. Building the production facilities costs billions, so you needed a really good case t

    • mRNA funding was started by Fauci around the HIV crisis in the 80s. It hasnâ(TM)t been proven effective to find a vaccine for HIV or any other evolving diseases it has been tried against (including H1N1 and COVID).

    • mRNA vaccine research started in the 70's, not in the 2000's (even before modern internet!). However, it took a global pandemic to get the massive influx of cash needed to make it a viable option.

      https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2... [jhu.edu]

  • But the actual truth might be a combination of facts ending in "All of The Above"

    When the factory was build should be a clear matter found in public records. That should clearly decide some facts.

    That Moderna chose to use that factory to manufacture mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 is their choice, not the government, unless the Feds mandated the use of that factory for that purpose.

    How and when Moderna developed it's own mRNA technologies could be a matter for litigation...in order to get the truth into the pub

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Really, the only thing that matters legally or morally is the terms they accepted when they received the money. If the terms say they have to provide the vaccine free forever, then they have to. If the terms don't say that, they can charge whatever they want, legally and morally, even if the vaccine development was *entirely* publicly funded.

      We don't ask SpaceX to give us free launches. NuScale is developing its small modular reactors with a combination of grants, loan guarantees, and public price guarant

      • by Xenx ( 2211586 )

        Really, the only thing that matters legally or morally is the terms they accepted when they received the money. If the terms say they have to provide the vaccine free forever, then they have to. If the terms don't say that, they can charge whatever they want, legally and morally, even if the vaccine development was *entirely* publicly funded.

        I agree on legality. Morality, however, is subjective. Just because something is legal, doesn't make it moral. There is an argument to be had that something illegal is antimoral. However, there are arguments about that. It's ultimately up to everyone to decide if it's moral or not, and people don't have to agree. For large businesses, morality comes down to whatever is best for the company.

        • by hey! ( 33014 )

          While I agree morality and legality are two different things -- which is why after all I specified both -- that doesn't make morality subjective. At the very least, it depends on what you mean by that.

          For large businesses, morality comes down to whatever is best for the company.

          I doubt you believe that all the way through to all of its potential consequences. If it were advantageous for a corporation to murder someone in a way that couldn't be traced back to them, would that be moral *because it was useful*?

          Ethics is an extremely complex subject, and there are multiple, fundamental

          • by Xenx ( 2211586 )

            While I agree morality and legality are two different things -- which is why after all I specified both -- that doesn't make morality subjective. At the very least, it depends on what you mean by that.

            I mean it quite literally. Morality is subjective. There is a social consensus to morality, but there is no truly objective morality. In the context of pricing for vaccines, there definitely isn't a firm consensus to the morality. Overpricing vaccines would be considered putting profit above public health and safety. While I'm not saying they should be obligated to put public health and safety first, I am saying it's generally considered amoral/antimoral to put profit well above public health and safety. No

      • by arQon ( 447508 )

        Really, the only thing that matters legally or morally is the terms they accepted when they received the money. If the terms say they have to provide the vaccine free forever, then they have to.

        Haha. Yeah, because "legality" has always been *so* prized in the pharma industry. :)

        Here's what actually happens in the "they have to" scenario:

        OG Covid now represents well under 1% of cases, quite possibly 0% at this point. The "new" vaccine is different, "because it is" [#1], so you either pay up or you get what might as well be water. Also, we can't provide the OG vaccine anyway, because we're not manufacturing any, and asking us to is unreasonable and a violation of our corporate free speech rights, et

  • Unless a variant is described as lethal I will keep living my life. I got all the free shots. If we go back to this being lethal I suspect the shots will go back to being free. Otherwise this is an expensive flu shot.
  • Stephane Bancel. Hey, isn't he the former CEO of bioMerieux? [wikipedia.org] And, isn't bioMerieux the company that oversaw [france24.com] the construction of the Wuhan lab? [mediapart.fr]

    Heh, small world.
  • Nearly all of the R&D was done in America under federal funding. This is INSANE that companies like this spring up from it and then charge America massive dollars.

    It is time to change a few things on our R&D:
    1) federal government and university gets part ownership in the tech.
    2) all of the work needs to remain in America.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Or, just add a windfall profits tax that brings their rate to 400% of the rate they paid before they boosted their price 400%.
    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Moderna is an American company. It didn't "spring up" it's been around for 13 years and was founded by MIT and Harvard professors, plus some business types, to develop RNA treatments for various diseases.

      Biotech researchers would *love* if governments funded translation of lab discoveries to actual treatments. Taxpayers would not.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Pay back the funding given by the US Government, by Dolly Parton, by many others... when and only when you have repaid all this do you get to charge people

  • They plan on pricing it at 100-130 per shot.
    They plan that "this won't cost anything to individuals."

    I'm not asking for someone to eli5 that pair of statements, what I'd like to understand is if there are people in the world who read that and go "oh, ok then" as if that's not a blatant contradiction?

    How is there not IMMEDIATE push back from anyone with a brain hearing it?

  • Let them make the shot $1000: a) the vaccine is no longer compulsory b) there are alternatives on the market.

  • Unless the pricing is at government purchasing levels

If all the world's economists were laid end to end, we wouldn't reach a conclusion. -- William Baumol

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