Mary Wilson
Well-known member
April 03, 2023
BY Louise C. Ivers and Amir Mohareb
For many in the biomedical world, the U.S. Senate’s recent hearing on Moderna’s pricing of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was eerily familiar. Moderna (and Pfizer) recently announced that they will raise the price of their vaccines over four-fold to $130 per dose.During the hearing, the CEO of Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was asked to account for the company’s steep price hike.
The chair of the committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), emphasized that Moderna, with profits surpassing $20 billion from its COVID-19 vaccine, has made several of its executives "overnight billionaires" during the pandemic. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), defended industry and the importance of capitalism in innovation, claiming that the hearing sent a hostile signal to future government partners.
In reality, physicians like us must care for patients who suffer under the thumb of these pricing practices. The situation is particularly dire for the global poor. Alongside our colleagues in Haiti, Uganda and the Asia Pacific islands, we have cared for patients who die because their families and healthcare systems cannot afford the vaccines, antibiotics, chemotherapy, or other basic medical technologies required to save them. ...
COVID-19 is just the latest example of global medical apartheid
... At $130 per dose, the new price would take mRNA vaccines almost entirely off the table for use around the world (health expenditures in Uganda are an average of $33 per person, per year, for example), not to mention create enduring access problems for people in the U.S., including people who are immunocompromised and elderly for whom an annual COVID-19 shot may soon become the best form of protection.
https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/20...-moderna-price-hike-loiuse-ivers-amir-mohareb
BY Louise C. Ivers and Amir Mohareb
For many in the biomedical world, the U.S. Senate’s recent hearing on Moderna’s pricing of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was eerily familiar. Moderna (and Pfizer) recently announced that they will raise the price of their vaccines over four-fold to $130 per dose.During the hearing, the CEO of Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was asked to account for the company’s steep price hike.
The chair of the committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), emphasized that Moderna, with profits surpassing $20 billion from its COVID-19 vaccine, has made several of its executives "overnight billionaires" during the pandemic. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), defended industry and the importance of capitalism in innovation, claiming that the hearing sent a hostile signal to future government partners.
In reality, physicians like us must care for patients who suffer under the thumb of these pricing practices. The situation is particularly dire for the global poor. Alongside our colleagues in Haiti, Uganda and the Asia Pacific islands, we have cared for patients who die because their families and healthcare systems cannot afford the vaccines, antibiotics, chemotherapy, or other basic medical technologies required to save them. ...
COVID-19 is just the latest example of global medical apartheid
... At $130 per dose, the new price would take mRNA vaccines almost entirely off the table for use around the world (health expenditures in Uganda are an average of $33 per person, per year, for example), not to mention create enduring access problems for people in the U.S., including people who are immunocompromised and elderly for whom an annual COVID-19 shot may soon become the best form of protection.
https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/20...-moderna-price-hike-loiuse-ivers-amir-mohareb