The incoming chair of the health committee, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, criticized Moderna on Tuesday for looking at a more than quadruple increase in the price of its COVID-19 vaccine.
How many of these Americans will die from COVID-19 because they don't have access to these vaccines that can save their lives? Sanders wrote to Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna. It is unconscionable to restrict access to this vital vaccine in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
He pleaded with the client, "I am writing you to reconsider your decision and refrain from any price increases."
Sanders wrote the letter in response to Moderna's CEO's recent remarks that the company might raise the cost of its COVID-19 shots to $110-130 per dose once vaccines enter the private market. This is an increase from the $26 per dose that the vaccines currently cost under the government contract.
Additionally, Pfizer has stated that it intends to raise prices to between $110 and $130 per dose.
"COVID-19 vaccines and boosters will continue to be available at no cost for the vast majority of people in the United States," Moderna maintained in a statement to ABC News.
"Modera is committed to pricing that reflects the value that COVID-19 vaccines bring to patients, healthcare systems, and society," a company spokesperson stated. "While we are still in discussions with stakeholders on the price of our COVID-19 vaccines, Moderna is committed to pricing."
ABC News was referred to by a spokesperson for Pfizer to a fall investor call in which company officials emphasized that they believed the majority of people would not have to pay out of pocket and that the vaccine's increased cost reflected its value.
The government provided free vaccines to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic by purchasing large quantities and distributing them. However, the government plans to move vaccines and COVID-19 treatments to the private market, where they will be covered by insurance or paid for upfront by uninsured patients, unless Congress agrees to provide additional funding.
Depending on when the federal supply of vaccines runs out, the move to the commercial market could occur this fall.
In his Tuesday letter to Moderna, Sanders questioned the vaccine manufacturers' claims that the majority of people would not feel the price increase.
He argued that Medicaid and Medicare will continue to pay for vaccines, as required by the CARES Act, but will now have to do so at a much higher cost, which will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
In addition, he wrote that private insurance customers may see their premiums rise as businesses attempt to offset the rising cost of vaccines. The CARES Act also requires private insurance companies to continue covering vaccines, though it is unclear to what extent.
Sanders wrote that people who do not have health insurance will suffer the most because they will be required to pay for vaccinations outright.
Because Moderna developed its COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, a government agency, and received $1.7 billion from the government to develop its mRNA vaccine, he deemed the idea of raising prices "particularly offensive."
To put it another way, you want to make the vaccine too expensive for the people in this country who helped make it possible to make it. That is unacceptable, wrote Sanders.
When asked Wednesday morning whether the federal government could collaborate with vaccine manufacturers regarding the cost increase, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra responded that it was largely up to the manufacturers.
He stated that the pricing was "something that is something that is within the hands of those manufacturers and the distributors."
He concluded by saying, "We will do everything we can to ensure that the cost of a COVID vaccine remains affordable."
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