Drew Angerer / Florian Gaertner / Getty Images
One of the leading developers of COVID-19 vaccines has now been placed in the ranks of people like Martin Shkreli – the disgraceful pharmaceutical manager who is notorious for raising the price of an old, life-saving drug by more than 5,000 percent. He is currently serving an 84-month prison sentence for a 2017 conviction for fraud unrelated to the price of drugs.
Moderna, manufacturer of one of only two vaccines that have granted emergency permits to prevent COVID-19 in the US, is ashamed of a 2020 “Shkreli award” by the Lown Institute, a think tank for healthcare. The awards, which have now been announced four times a year, go to ‘perpetrators of the ten most serious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare’.
Award reviewers cited Moderna’s pricing for its COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed with $ 1 billion in federal funding. Nevertheless, despite the support of taxpayers, Moderna has set the estimated prices for the vaccine significantly higher than other vaccine developers.
In August, the company set the estimated price range from $ 32 to $ 37 per dose, making the two-dose regimen from $ 64 to $ 74 per person. At the time, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, which now has the other COVID-19 vaccine for the United States, signed an agreement with the US government to deliver doses of $ 19.50 each, for a two-dose regimen of $ 39 per person. In particular, Pfizer and BioNTech have developed their vaccine without any federal funding. Johnson & Johnson also had an agreement to supply doses of the vaccine – which is still in progress – to the US government at a rate of $ 10 per dose.
In November, amid criticism, Moderna allegedly reduced its estimated cost to $ 25 to $ 37 per dose. Eventually, it signed an agreement with the U.S. government to provide the vaccine at a price of $ 15 per dose, or $ 30 for a two-dose regimen per person.
The judges of the Lown Institute nevertheless wrote that, “given the pre-invested investment by the US government, we are in fact paying twice for the vaccine.”
Awards judge Deborah Blum added: “It’s so blatantly greedy of a company that has no record of producing vaccines and has built its current one with taxpayer assistance.” Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist and director of the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Moderna has again made an appearance on the price list. Judges noted that dr. Elizabeth Nabel, CEO of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a member of the board of Moderna, wrote an essay in February defending the high drug prices. Nabel did not disclose her role at Moderna in the opinion. She also faced questions of conflict of interest after Brigham and Women’s Hospital was selected as a trial site for the Moderna vaccine.
Award reviewers noted that Nabel received $ 487,500 in Moderna shares and other payments in 2019 and sold $ 8.5 million in Moderna shares in 2020, after the company’s share nearly quadrupled amid its COVID-19 vaccine. Nabel resigned from the board of Moderna amid criticism in July.
Moderna did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.