As the U.S. plans to relinquish its role as the predominant purchaser of the Covid-19 vaccine to the commercial sector, vaccine manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer have announced plans to hike the price of the vaccine by over 400 percent. The decision would increase the price from $26 to $110-130 per dose, despite it costing only $2.85 to produce.
Pfizer and Moderna made record-breaking profits from the Covid-19 vaccine, but taxpayers funded the development of the Covid-19 vaccines in 2020 through Operation Warp Speed and the CARES Act.
In the case of Moderna, the pharmaceutical giant does not even have permission to use one of the key government-owned technologies behind the vaccine. Pfizer’s vaccine also derives from basic government-funded research on mRNA technology, which was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.
The billions in profits raked in by Moderna and Pfizer would not be possible without taxpayer resources and government-funded innovation, making the moral depravity of their recent decisions that much more repugnant.
While Moderna and Pfizer continue to say the price gouging won’t impact consumers, experts argue that it will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare funding. People on private insurance can also expect to see their premiums go up. Most significantly, the impact will be felt by those without health insurance. This type of corporate price gouging from Pfizer and Moderna will inevitably result in lower vaccination rates and increased risk to global health.
The federal government arguably has authority over the pricing of products developed through federal funds. If pharmaceutical companies want to continue to callously threaten public health in an effort to price gouge life-saving products, the U.S. government has a responsibility to check them accordingly.