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Pfizer and Moderna Quadrupling Price of COVID Vaccine Raises Concerns
U.S. and U.K. lawmakers have written to pharmaceutical companies producing the COVID-19 vaccine calling for them to refrain from drastically raising the price of the jab.
Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that the company plans to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine to between $110 and $130 a dose. Its current booster shot reportedly cost the U.S. government around $26 a dose, whereas the original vaccine was between $15 and $16.
The move comes after Pfizer announced a plan to quadruple the cost of its own COVID-19 vaccine to the same price range, citing weaker demand while it maintained cheaper contracts with developing nations. Market analysts told Reuters at the time that the move would lead to competitors hiking their own prices.
The proposed price increases have caused concern in both the U.S. and the U.K. Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch, both Democrat senators, wrote to Bancel on January 24 to question Moderna’s “greed.” The price hike may put the U.S. vaccination program’s progress “at risk.”
Four U.K. Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum recently wrote to Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, expressing concern over its impacts on the National Health Service, and asking him to confirm that the cost of the vaccine will not rise in the U.K.
The COVID Pandemic Drives Pfizer’s 2022 Revenue to a Record $100 Billion
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic propelled pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s earnings to a record $100 billion last year, almost $57 billion of which was driven by its vaccine and antiviral pill Paxlovid.
The vaccine accounted for $37.8 billion, up just 3% from 2021, of Pfizer’s total sales as demand for the shots slowed. But sales of its blockbuster antiviral treatment made up for that softening, surging to $18.9 billion in 2022, the first full year that Paxlovid was on the market.
Pfizer told investors to expect revenue to decline in 2023 by as much as 33% to between $67 billion and $71 billion as the world emerges from the pandemic and demand for its blockbuster COVID drugs slows.
Biden Administration Plans to End COVID Public Health Emergency in May
The Biden administration on Monday announced that the COVID-19 public health emergency, which has been in place since January 2020, is set to end on May 11.
Since it was first declared on Jan. 31, 2020, by former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, the national PHE has been renewed 12 times under two different administrations. The most recent renewal was declared on Jan. 11.
“To be clear, the continuation of these emergency declarations until May 11 does not impose any restriction at all on individual conduct with regard to COVID-19,” the Office of Management and Budget said in its statement. “They do not impose mask mandates or vaccine mandates. They do not restrict school or business operations. They do not require the use of any medicines or tests in response to cases of COVID-19.”
U.S. Watchdog Identifies $5.4 Billion in Potentially Fraudulent COVID Loans
The U.S. government likely awarded about $5.4 billion in COVID-19 aid to people with questionable Social Security numbers, a federal watchdog said in a report released on Monday.
The watchdog, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), said it “identified 69,323 questionable Social Security Numbers (SSNs) used to obtain $5.4 billion from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).”
The loans were disbursed between April 2020 and October 2022, the watchdog said in its report, which comes ahead of a scheduled Wednesday hearing by the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee on fraud in pandemic spending.
Rep. Katie Porter Says ‘Two Manufacturers Control 97%’ of COVID Vaccine Market
Rep. Katie Porter (D-California) had some choice words about pharmaceutical companies when it comes to the choice of COVID-19 vaccines.
In a recent speech to her Congressional colleagues, she referred to the recent revelation that Pfizer and Moderna may raise the roof on COVID-19 mRNA vaccine prices four-fold up to the $110 to $130 per dose range, which I’ve covered for Forbes. She called it “jacking up the price tag on public health,” which probably wasn’t referring to anyone’s muscles.
And for anyone who may say something like “not to worry, the free market will determine prices,” she then explained, “Just two vaccine manufacturers control 97% of the market. They will not compete because they do not have to.” Yeah, two may be better than one, according to that 2009 song from Boys Like Girls. But two certainly ain’t a lot of competition.
Pandemic at a Tipping Point: WHO
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The pandemic has reached a “transition point,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday. Still, that doesn’t mean the public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) designation declared by the WHO in January 2020 is over yet.
The organization’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee met last week to discuss COVID-19, saying in a statement released Monday that it urged WHO to propose “alternative mechanisms to maintain the global and national focus on COVID-19 after the PHEIC is terminated.”
The advisory committee said there was little doubt that the virus would remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future, even as higher levels of immunity from infection or vaccination might limit its impact on illness and death.
Long COVID Has an ‘Underappreciated’ Role in Labor Shortage, Study Finds
Long COVID is keeping people out of work and may reduce on-the-job productivity for others, contributing to a labor shortage and weighing on the U.S. economy at large, according to a new study.
Long COVID — also known as long-haul COVID, post-COVID or post-acute COVID syndrome — is a chronic illness that results from a COVID-19 infection. Its potential symptoms number in the hundreds and, for some, can be debilitating and persist for years.
About 18% of people with long COVID hadn’t returned to work for more than a year after contracting COVID, according to a recent study by the New York State Insurance Fund, the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer. Of this share, more than 3 in 4 were under 60 years old.
Another 40% returned to work within 60 days of infection but were still receiving medical treatment — presenting challenges such as reduced hours, lower productivity and other workplace accommodations, NYSIF said.
