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A nurse prepares Pfizer vaccine doses on December 30, 2021, during a COVID-19 vaccination event at Josephine’s Southern Cooking in Chatham, Illinois.
Brian Casella | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
urged the Biden administration on Thursday PfizerAnd accident And novafax To price their updated Covid vaccines “reasonable” rate when they released it in the US this fall.
in letter Directed at shot manufacturers, the Department of Health and Human Services said price gouging would take advantage of “the trust the American people have placed in you through the COVID-19 response.”
None of the three manufacturers has disclosed exact pricing for the upcoming single-strain vaccines, which they are designing to target the circulating XBB.1.5 variant of omicron.
Pfizer and Moderna said earlier this year that they expected to price their shots between $110 and $130 a dose — nearly five times current prices for current vaccines.
The estimate drew criticism from lawmakers, who noted that the two companies and their executives have made large profits from the shots during the pandemic.
Price points for shots will be crucial in the fall, when the federal government is expected to shift distribution of the Covid vaccine to the commercial market. This means that manufacturers will sell their updated products directly to healthcare providers rather than to the government.
A Moderna spokesperson reiterated the company’s previous remarks about getting ready in time for fall with an ample vaccine supply.
Meanwhile, a Pfizer spokesperson referred CNBC to last month’s release, which says the company expects to be ready to ship its new shots immediately in the fall, pending regulatory review and approval.
A Novavax spokesperson said the company values ​​its “continued collaboration and partnership” with the US government and intends to make its new vaccine available by late September.
“As we approach this transition, we expect companies to look to the example set by the US government in eliminating barriers to access for the American public,” HHS said in a statement.
HHS said it expects manufacturers to work with the Centers for Medicare Services, Medicaid and other payers to make sure they have the information required to cover updated shots in the fall. The administration also advised manufacturers to plan their regulatory applications to the Food and Drug Administration for their respective shots.
HHS said preparing these requests ahead of time would allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make recommendations for shots by September.
Federal programs and companies plan to help defray out-of-pocket costs for updated shots this fall for uninsured Americans.
That includes the Biden administration’s “HHS Bridge Access Program,” a temporary effort that will provide free Covid shots and treatments to uninsured Americans once those products go to the commercial market.
Pfizer and Moderna also plan to launch patient assistance programs for their Covid shots. But there are still outstanding questions about what those efforts will look like.
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