Pfizer expects to hike U.S. COVID vaccine price to $110-$130 per dose in 2023 and beyond
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With the weak demand for the covid-19 vaccines and the rising budget awaiting covid-19 vaccine companies, the pfizer covid vaccine company is expected to raise it's price for the vaccine per dose beginning from the start of it's contract signing with the US.
There have been speculations by the wall street that pfizer might hike it's price of covid-19 vaccine dose and it mentioned that this will be done due to the high budget for production in 2023. This has come to be true as the Pfizer executive Angela Lukin said on Thursday that:
she expects the vaccine - currently provided for free to all by the government - will be made available at no cost to people who have private insurance or government paid insurance.Source
Currently, the covid-19 jabs are free under governments budgets and this is possible because of the smart contracts signed the governments and the vaccine companies. What isn't stated clearly is the fact whether the cost for the vaccine will paid from individuals pockets or from the government or probably they'll calculate the cost of individual dose and sum it up to be part of the new contracts that'll be signed since the previous contract is likely to expire very soon.
The U.S. government currently pays around $30 per dose to Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE). In 2023, the market is expected to move to private insurance after the U.S. public health emergency expires.Source
Switching to private insurance to me isn't bad but the possibility of people accessing the vaccine is my concern and a point to note, although, Lukin said that patients will easily access the vaccine.
Another thing we need to look at is the hike in price of the vaccine per dose. The government currently pays $30 per dose and by the expiration of the public health emergency, each dose will be given between $110-$130. This is quadruple the amount and I doubt if private individuals can afford a jab, which will likely lead to less demand for the jab and hopefully the risk will escalate as time goes on.
Around 14.8 million people in the U.S. received a booster shot over the first six weeks of the rollout of the new shots. In the first six weeks of the 2021 revaccination campaign, over 22 million people received their third shot even though only older and immunocompromised people were eligible at that point.Source
The final words of Lukin is very interesting and gives private individuals the opportunity to plan and strategize on how to cater for covid jab and according to her, this transfer to public health will come until the first quarter of next year. The move is dependent on the government contracted supply being depleted.
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