Pfizer will charge $110 to $130 for a dose of its COVID-19 vaccine once the US government stops buying the shots, but the drugmaker said it hopes more people will continue to get it for free. .
Pfizer executives said commercial pricing for the adult dosage could begin as early as next year, depending on when the government outlines its program to buy and distribute the injectables.
The drug’s maker said it hopes that people with private health insurance or coverage through public programs like Medicare or Medicaid will pay nothing. The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to cover many recommended vaccines without any out-of-pocket costs.
A spokeswoman said the company also has an income-based assistance program to help uninsured eligible U.S. residents get vaccinated.
The price will make the two-dose vaccine more expensive for customers who pay cash than the annual flu shots. According to CVS Health, which operates one of the nation’s largest drugstore chains, these drugs can range in price from about $50 to $95, depending on the type.
A Pfizer executive said Thursday that the price reflects the increased costs of switching to single-dose vials and commercial distribution. The chief executive officer, Angela Lukin, said the price was far below the threshold “for a vaccine that is considered highly effective.”
Last year, the drugmaker said it charges US$19.50 per dose and has three pricing tiers globally, depending on each country’s financial situation. In June, the company said the US government would buy 105 million more doses in a deal worth about $30 per shot. The government has the option to buy more doses later.
Pfizer’s two-shot vaccine to be released in late 2020 and the most common preventive shot used against COVID-19 in the US
Not a Modern Healthcare subscriber? Sign up today.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 375 million doses of the original vaccine, developed by Pfizer in partnership with German pharmaceutical manufacturer BioNTech, have been distributed in the US.
That number does not take into account the other 12 million doses of the updated booster that were approved earlier this year.
The vaccine brought in $36.78 billion in sales last year for Pfizer and is the drugmaker’s best-selling product.
Analysts predict that it will rake in an additional $32 billion this year, according to FactSet. But they also predicted a rapid drop in sales after that.
According to the CDC, more than 90% of the American adult population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. But only about half of that population also received the booster dose.
Download the Modern Healthcare app to stay up to date with industry news.
