Moderna’s plans rely on having a really good vaccine
As the world’s many Covid-19 vaccine developers announced deals to supply hundreds of millions of doses to governments around the globe, Moderna stayed quiet. Then, yesterday, the company revealed it had pre-sold about $400 million worth of its vaccine at a price more than double that of some competitors.
Moderna said it had signed a series of low-volume contracts valuing its vaccine at $64 to $74 for a two-dose regimen. That’s more than Pfizer and BioNTech’s $39 course of treatment, and it’s a multiple of AstraZeneca’s implied $8 cost and Johnson & Johnson’s $10 dose.
On a conference call with analysts, Moderna said it was in the process of negotiating larger volume deals that would likely reflect lower per-dose costs. But when asked, again and again in a variety of phrasings, how the company could charge a materially higher price than its rivals, CEO Stéphane Bancel said “I do not think all products are equal,” and that “the totality of the data” would differentiate Moderna’s vaccine in time.
That may turn out to be true, but it might not matter much to governments negotiating in the present, when the totality of the data is unknown. And it might not resonate with officials in the U.S., who have already committed $1 billion in taxpayer funds to support Moderna’s vaccine.
Moderna said it had signed a series of low-volume contracts valuing its vaccine at $64 to $74 for a two-dose regimen. That’s more than Pfizer and BioNTech’s $39 course of treatment, and it’s a multiple of AstraZeneca’s implied $8 cost and Johnson & Johnson’s $10 dose.
On a conference call with analysts, Moderna said it was in the process of negotiating larger volume deals that would likely reflect lower per-dose costs. But when asked, again and again in a variety of phrasings, how the company could charge a materially higher price than its rivals, CEO Stéphane Bancel said “I do not think all products are equal,” and that “the totality of the data” would differentiate Moderna’s vaccine in time.
That may turn out to be true, but it might not matter much to governments negotiating in the present, when the totality of the data is unknown. And it might not resonate with officials in the U.S., who have already committed $1 billion in taxpayer funds to support Moderna’s vaccine.
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