Pfizer Says Company Will Charge up to $130 per Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine by 2023
Pfizer will be charging up to $130 per dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2023 when the U.S. government possibly no longer makes the jabs free.
Pfizer told Daily Mail on Friday that the shot will be available commercially in early 2023, and it will cost between $110 and $130 per jab.
The U.S. government is moving away from distributing the COVID-19 vaccines to roll them out through the traditional healthcare system.
Americans will be able to get the shot from their primary care provider. However, there may still be some out-of-pocket payments.
The vaccine maker said the $130 price will apply to doses for Americans 12 and older, while the price for those younger patients, wherein doses are smaller, has not been decided yet.
Last year, the pharmaceutical giant said it was charging the U.S. government $19.50 per dose. It added that it had three tiers of pricing globally, depending on each country's financial situation.
The company said in June that the U.S. government will be buying more than 105 million doses in a deal that was priced at around $30 per shot.
Pfizer to Charge $130 Per COVID-19 Vaccine Shot
The U.S. government has shouldered the bill and provided vaccines for free ever since they became widely available.
Pfizer's U.S. President of Global Primary Call, Angela Lukin, told Fierce Pharma that anyone with commercial or government insurance eligible to be vaccinated should be able to avail of the COVID-19 vaccine without paying any of the costs.
The new pricing for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will take effect in early 2023 when the U.S. exhausts its stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines and changes its distribution to a commercial model.
Lukin said one of the reasons behind the increase was that the company will provide vaccines in a single-dose vial instead of the current multi-dose vials.
The Pfizer official noted that it changed due to "consumer preference." Pfizer also mentioned its "50/50 gross profit split" with BioNTech, and the reinvestment cost as the company continues to ramp up manufacturing and develop the vaccine as the virus evolves.
Lukin further noted that the co-administration of flu and COVID-19 vaccine shots has increased to 40%. Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal expected a $50 price for the Pfizer vaccine per dose. Meanwhile, Moderna has yet to respond on whether they plan to charge for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine
Recently, the company came under scrutiny on social media over alleged admissions about clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued "key considerations" for COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials as vaccines were still being researched and developed in June 2020.
Pfizer clarified that its phase 3 clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine was designed to review how effective the vaccine was at keeping people from getting sick, CBS8 News reported.
A spokesperson for the company noted that the trials were not created to "evaluate the vaccine's effectiveness against transmission" of COVID-19. In December 2020, the FDA authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the U.S.
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This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
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