Pfizer is set to jack up the price of its COVID-19 vaccine now that the Biden administration is no longer paying for it.
Global primary care and U.S. president of Pfizer Angela Lukin said Thursday the company will roughly quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine to between $110 and $130 per dose, Reuters reported. Lukin clarified that the company still expects the vaccine to be available for free to anyone with private insurance or government-funded healthcare.
Pfizer COVID vaccine price hike seen giving revenue boost for years https://t.co/jTj1bQzzef pic.twitter.com/b5rk4moF2C
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 21, 2022
Thus far, all COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States have been paid for by the federal government and provided to residents free of charge. However, the Biden administration recently announced it will no longer buy vaccine doses for free distribution following the purchase of the bivalent, Omicron-targeting booster produced for a potential autumn 2022 and winter 2023 surge.
The government had been paying Pfizer about $30 per dose. Lukin said the government-purchased supply of shots shouldn’t run out until early 2023 at the earliest, as demand has waned over time. (RELATED: Pfizer Plans To Profit From COVID For Years To Come)
Both Pfizer and Moderna have recorded historically-high profits thanks to their development of COVID-19 vaccines and, in the case of Pfizer, the paxlovid anti-viral pill. The Biden administration purchased $5 billion worth of the bivalent booster shots developed by both companies earlier this year, but only a fraction of eligible Americans have opted to get those updated boosters so far.