Moderna vaccine price hike would be 4,000% mark-up above cost

Responding to news that Moderna is considering raising the price of its COVID-19 vaccine to between $110 and $130, Julia Kosgei, Policy Co-Lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“Billions of taxpayer dollars went into the development of mRNA vaccines. This vaccine isn’t just Moderna’s, it was developed in collaboration with a government agency based on decades of publicly-funded research. It is the people’s vaccine – and it should be available and affordable for everyone, everywhere.

“Experts have estimated that a dose of the Moderna vaccine costs just $2.85 to produce. Increasing the price to $130 would be a mark-up of more than 4,000% above production cost. The sheer greed is obscene.

“It doesn’t have to be like this. The World Health Organization is supporting a program to share mRNA vaccine technology with producers in low and middle-income countries. In a future pandemic, this could rapidly supply doses for the entire world, but Moderna’s patents are standing in the way. We need to learn from this pandemic and break big pharma’s monopolies.”

/Ends

Notes to editors

This is a reaction to news that Moderna is considering pricing its COVID-19 shot at $110 to $130 per dose in the United States when it shifts from government contracting to commercial distribution of the shots https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-considers-pricing-covid-vaccine-110-130-wsj-2023-01-09/

Cost price estimates used in this release are based on Oxfam analysis of studies of mRNA production techniques, carried out by Public Citizen with engineers at Imperial College. Public Citizen and Imperial College’s analysis suggests that it could cost $22.83 billion to produce 8 billion doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine ―$2.85 per vaccine.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel became a billionaire during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/covid-vaccines-create-9-new-billionaires-combined-wealth-greater-cost-vaccinating

Moderna’s vaccine generated approximately $18.4 billion in revenue last year. 2023 sales of the vaccine are projected to reach at least $5 billion, without accounting for any contracts that could be signed this year: https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/moderna-covid-vax-scarfed-sales-184b-2022-company-says

Moderna’s vaccine patents stand in the way of the mRNA vaccine hub: https://www.devex.com/news/moderna-s-patents-stand-in-way-of-mrna-vaccine-hub-s-grand-vision-103055

Media contact

Joe Karp-Sawey, Senior Media Advisor, People’s Vaccine Alliance

[email protected]