Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is slated to participate in next month's Senate panel inquiry of Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, with the intent of questioning the pharmaceutical giant's proposed plans to quadruple the price of the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Wednesday, Sanders, chairman of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), characterized Moderna as the "poster child" for corporate greed and inflated drug prices.
While talking to reporters, Sanders also lamented how the federal government invested nearly $2 billion of taxpayer money into the development of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.
As such, the longtime senator doesn't see how Moderna can justify such a significant price hike for the vaccine.
"Our demand is to Moderna. You received huge help from the federal government and the taxpayers of this country. You made billions of dollars in personal wealth. Do not quadruple the prices for this vaccine," said Sanders, who also doesn't like the optics of corporate leaders, such as Bancel, becoming billionaires after the worldwide coronavirus pandemic set in.
Moderna's updated booster shots reportedly cost about $26 per dose, and the federal government distributes the shots for free.
Last month, upon hearing of Moderna's plan to increase its vaccine price to $130 per dose, Sanders wrote to Bancel and called the reported price hike "unacceptable corporate greed."
Moderna advocates might argue the new pricing structure aligns with Pfizer's pricing estimates.
However, unlike Moderna, Pfizer does not receive federal support when developing any COVID-19 vaccines.
On Wednesday, perhaps in response to Sanders' direct criticism, Moderna said that it "remains committed" to the American people having consistent access to COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of insurance coverage.
"For uninsured or underinsured people, Moderna's patient assistance program will provide COVID-19 vaccines at no cost," the company wrote in a statement, without explaining how that phase of the program would work.
According to the Health Resources & Services Administration, COVID-19 vaccines "are 100% free to all individuals in the U.S. Only insurance companies, or the federal government can be billed for vaccine administration fees, not patients.
"While providers participating in the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program are required to request patient information to help verify an individual's uninsured status — including Social Security Number and, if unavailable, a driver's license/state ID number — this information is not required for an individual to get vaccinated."
A recent report from the HELP Committee's staff listed the pay and "golden parachutes" structure of 10 pharmaceutical CEOs, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Moderna, AbbVie, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
"From both a moral and economic perspective, the United States Congress and the Administration has a responsibility to rein in the greed of these pharmaceutical pandemic profiteers. This is an issue that the Senate HELP Committee will be addressing," read one excerpt from the report.
Bancel will meet with Senate investigators on Feb. 22.
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