Published - March 21, 2023 @ 12:18 PM (EET)

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While the COVID-19 pandemic ended up being a cash cow for several pharma and biotech companies, Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), on Monday, said it now expects to price its COVID-19 vaccine at around $130 per dose in the US going forward.

In what's expected to be a heated Capitol Hill argument this week, the drugmaker plans to tell US lawmakers that it more than adequately compensated the government for its role in the vaccine rollout that brought the company billions of dollars.

Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel will testify before a Senate panel on Wednesday about the price the company will charge for its vaccine as it shifts responsibility from the government to the private sector.

Chair of the Senate's powerful Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Bernie Sanders, said Moderna should not raise the price of its vaccine because of the government funding it received and highlighted the company's actions as an example of "unacceptable corporate greed."

Meanwhile, Moderna president Stephen Hoge argued the company had more than paid back federal support by selling a similar amount of mRNA COVID vaccines to the government for around $3 billion less than rival  Pfizer (NYSE:PFE).

In an interview Monday, he said, "We think we've paid it back, and then some." Noting that the company is grateful for the support, he added, "We truly do believe that the public-private partnership was valuable, and we're proud to be a part of it."

According to federal data, Moderna received about $10.1 billion from the US for doses of its COVID vaccines, compared to Pfizer, who received roughly $12.6 billion.

WHY IT MATTERS

In February, Moderna forecasted a significant decline in COVID-19 vaccine sales for 2023 after the Biden Administration announced the pandemic public health emergency would end in May and shifted price negotiations to insurers and other purchasers instead of just the federal government.

Moderna's vaccine sales reached $18.4 billion in 2022.

Ahead of the Congressional hearing on Moderna's pricing plans on Wednesday, Hoge said, "There are different customers negotiating different prices right now, which is why it's a little bit complicated."

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Elsewhere, large vaccine players, including GSK Plc, Moderna Inc., and CSL Seqirus, owned by CSL Limited, said they are developing or about to test sample human vaccines against bird flu as a precautionary measure against a future pandemic.

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