Future shots Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could cost Americans up to $130 each. The New York City-based firm confirmed the price point to DailyMail.com on Friday. It says that it expects out-of-pocket costs to remain at zero for the insured.
The move comes as the nation moves away from government-controlled distribution of the jabs to rolling them out through the traditional US healthcare system.
This means that, similar to a flu shot, Americans will be able to get the shot from their primary-care provider, though there may still be some out-of-pocket costs.
A transition in the distribution of the shots could come as early as early 2023, Pfizer said.
Demand for the shots has plummeted in the US in recent months – with Americans largely being uninterested in receiving repeated booster shots.
Uptake for the shots crashed to such a point that Wall Street analysts told Reuters earlier this week that prices would have to triple to reach expected revenue targets.
The federal government may soon run out of COVID-19 vaccines, as the White House has failed to convince congress to approve $15billion on pandemic spending.
Pfizer will charge between $110 and $130 for its COVID-19 vaccine on the commercial market, the company confirmed on Friday (file photo)
Pfizer says that the price will apply to jabs for Americans 12 and older. A price for those younger, for which doses are smaller, has not yet been decided.
The firm says it accounted for both the costs of manufacturing the jab and its value to the world.
The shot, which was a joint project with the German company BioNTech, is the most widely used COVID-19 vaccine in the world.
It is also believed to be the ‘gold-standard shot by many, and has the widest approval of any of the three jabs being distributed in the US.
That doesn´t count another 12 million doses of an updated booster that was approved earlier this year.
More than 375 million doses of the original vaccine have been distributed in the US according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The drugmaker said last year that it was charging the US $19.50 per dose, and that it had three tiers of pricing globally, depending on each country’s financial situation.
Leading CDC panel votes to add COVID-19 vaccines to recommended immunizations for all Americans
A leading panel of experts recommended the CDC to add COVID-19 vaccines to the standard vaccine schedule for children aged six months and older.
Children six months and older as well as all adults should get fully vaccinated and boosted with Covid shots when they become eligible, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said in a unanimous 15-0 vote Thursday.
The committee’s vote does not have an immediate effect and it is not binding.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not have to follow its recommendation, though it would be unusual for it not to.
The move to schedule the vaccines does not constitute a mandate that children must get them, but opponents are arguing that it opens the door to this.
In June, the company said the U.S. government would buy an additional 105million doses in a deal that amounted to roughly $30 per shot.
The government has the option to purchase more doses after that.
As a part of the move Thursday, Pfizer will no longer ship its vaccine in vials that contain around six doses each.
Instead, vials will only contain a single dose each to be used and discarded for each individual patient.
It is likely that insured Americans will pa little out-of-pocket for the shots, just as insurance will cover flu shots in a majority of cases.
The firm says it will work to make sure uninsured Americans can access to shots with minimal cost as well.
The price would make the two-dose vaccine more expensive for cash-paying customers than annual flu shots.
Those can range in price from around $50 to $95, depending on the type, according to CVS Health, which runs one of the nation’s biggest drugstore chains.
A Pfizer executive said Thursday that the price reflects increased costs for switching to single-dose vials and commercial distribution.
The executive, Angela Lukin, said the price was well below the thresholds “for what would be considered a highly effective vaccine.”
Whether Americans will still be willing to get jabbed is another question, though, as demand for the shots has plummeted.
The recent rollout of the bivalent Covid boosters, tailored towards the Omicron variant – which can evade immunity from previous vaccines.
Less than 20million Americans have received the shot in the first month-and-a-half of its rollout.
Not even half of Americans who are eligible for a booster- those five and up – have even received an initial booster which was approved as early as September 2021.
Experts say that the lack of demand in shots is tied to the relatively low risk of the virus at this point.
Despite lack of interest from the public, a leading panel of doctors voted Thursday to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the recommended vaccine schedule for children.
Booster shot uptake remains low among the youngest children, who are less vulnerable to severe infection than older Americans. The CDC recommends that children as young as five get a booster shot.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted a unanimous 15-0 to add the shots to the schedule.
The ACIP decision opens the door to allowing local public school districts around the country to mandate the shots for students to attend.
The move was heavily criticized.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican said that the committee’s decision ‘will precipitate Covid vax mandates to attend schools and play sports in many states’.
Meanwhile, Dr Margery Smelkinson, an infectious disease scientist at the National Institutes of Health, said: ‘Anyone saying this won’t lead to a mandate hasn’t been paying attention.’
While it is common for schools to require vaccinations before a child can attend, states choose for themselves whether to make certain shots compulsory.
The flu and HPV vaccines for example are on the CDC’s schedule but not required at all public schools for attendance.
