Big Pharma Companies Want to Price-Gouge the American People and Health Care System as COVID-19 Vaccine and Therapeutic Coverage Shifts to Commercial Market
Washington, D.C. – The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP) released a statement Friday in response to reports that brand name pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is planning to hike the price of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine as payment for the vaccines shifts from the U.S. Government to the private market. According to reporting from Reuters, Pfizer plans to “as much as quadruple” the price of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine – to a price that represents a “10,000 percent markup over what experts have estimated it costs the vaccine makers to produce the shots.”
“Pfizer’s egregious decision to quadruple the price of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates the urgency for policymakers to build on recent positive progress to hold Big Pharma accountable,” said CSRxP executive director Lauren Aronson. “As COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic coverage shifts to the commercial market, Big Pharma is increasingly and brazenly trying to price-gouge the American people and health care system.”
“Big Pharma’s playbook is to consistently pursue every possible angle to price-gouge patients, game the health care system and boost profits,” Aronson added. “Policymakers must continue to build on the recent major progress toward holding Big Pharma accountable with additional market-based solutions to crack down on the pharmaceutical industry’s egregious pricing practices and anti-competitive tactics.”
Pfizer is not the only Big Pharma giant looking to squeeze additional profits out of COVID-19 products through price increases. Recently, fellow Big Pharma drug maker Moderna’s revealed in a presentation to shareholders in September aspirations to increase the price of its COVID-19 vaccine, branded under the name Spikevax, to $100. The company charged the U.S. Government between $15 and $16.50 per shot, according to the New York Times.
Eli Lilly also was recently caught hiking the price of its monoclonal antibody treatment ahead of a transition to the commercial market.
Learn more about bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.