The European Union is paying $26.30 apiece for the new COVID-19 jabs, but back in the USA, the CDC is paying what amounts to scalper’s prices at $81.61 for the Moderna shot and $85.10 for the Pfizer shot.

That’s triple the price they paid in 2022. Private insurers will pay even more — $115 for the Pfizer shot and $128 for Moderna’s — and Senate Health Committee Chair Bernie Sanders is hopping mad about it. He’s so angry, in fact, that he’s been holding up confirming President Biden’s appointee for director of the National Institutes of Health until he can secure contracts guaranteeing the U.S. will pay similar prices to what other countries are paying.

At least one consumer agency, Public Citizen Access to Medicines, is onboard with Sanders. “Taxpayers and U.S. patients are getting a raw deal, again,” said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen director. “It’s time for the Biden administration to announce a comprehensive reasonable pricing clause. Drugs and vaccines that benefit from public R&D funding must offer a fair price in return.”

SOURCE:

Stat News September 28, 2023