Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) CEO Stephane Bancel on Wednesday defended the company’s plans to hike the price of its COVID shots fivefold, deflecting pressure at a Senate hearing to abandon the increase while taking barbs over his compensation.
Moderna plans to raise the list price of its vaccine 400% to $130 when the shots are sold on the private market as early as this fall. The company has been charging the U.S. government about $26 per dose.
Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate health committee, pressed Bancel during the hearing to agree not to increase the vaccine’s list price by that much.
“Quadrupling the price is huge,” Sanders told Bancel. “I would hope very much you would reconsider that decision. It’s going to cost taxpayers of this country billions of dollars. Is that something you can do?”
Bancel declined to make such a commitment. He told the committee that the COVID vaccine market is changing substantially as the U.S. government stops buying and distributing the shots for the entire country.
Moderna expects demand for the vaccine to fall by 90%, leaving the company be on the hook for any wasted doses, Bancel said. During the pandemic, the federal government picked up those costs.
MRNA shares ballooned $4.62, or 3.1%, early Thursday morning to $152.80.
