Washington, Jan 11: It is unacceptable for pharmaceutical company Moderna to raise the price of its COVID-19 vaccine amid the current public health and economic situations, US Senator Bernie Sanders said.
“Now, in the midst of a continuing public health crisis and a growing federal deficit, is not the time for Moderna to be quadrupling the price of the COVID-19 vaccine. Now is not the time for unacceptable corporate greed,” Sanders said in a statement via Twitter.
Earlier on Tuesday, US media reported that Sanders sent a letter to Moderna requesting they halt the price hike. The roughly $1.7 billion in vaccine development funding provided by the US government makes the price increase particularly unacceptable, Sanders reportedly said in the letter.
Moderna told US media on Monday that they are considering charging $110-$130 per dose for their COVID-19 vaccine once the shots enter the commercial market in the United States, up approximately eight times from early government contracts and five times what the US paid for booster doses in 2022, the reports said.
Over 6.71 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide, including over 1.09 million in the United States, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center.
(UNI)
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