INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pfizer will charge $110 to $130 for a dose of its COVID-19 vaccine once the United States government stops buying the shots, but the
drugmaker says it expects many people will continue receiving it for free.Pfizer executives said the commercial pricing for adult doses
could start early next year, depending on when the government phases out its program of buying and distributing the shots, AP reported.The
drugmaker said it expects that people with private health insurance or coverage through public programs like Medicare or Medicaid will pay
The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover many recommended vaccines without charging any out-of-pocket expenses.A spokesman said
the company also has an income-based assistance program that helps eligible United States residents with no insurance get the shots.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
The executive, Angela Lukin, said the price was well below the thresholds &for what would be considered a highly effective vaccine.The
drugmaker said last year that it was charging the United States $19.50 per dose, and that it had three tiers of pricing globally, depending
on each country&s financial situation
In June, the company said the United States government would buy an additional 105 million doses in a deal that amounted to roughly $30 per
The government has the option to purchase more doses after that.Pfizer&s two-shot vaccine debuted in late 2020 and has been the most common
preventive shot used to fight COVID-19 in the United States More than 375 million doses of the original vaccine, which Pfizer developed with
the German drugmaker BioNTech, have been distributed in the United States , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.That
doesn''t count another 12 million doses of an updated booster that was approved earlier this year.The vaccine brought in $36.78 billion in
revenue last year for Pfizer and was the drugmaker&s top-selling product.Analysts predict that it will rack up another $32 billion this
year, according to FactSet
But they also expect sales to fall rapidly after that.More than 90% of the adult United States population has already received at least one
dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC
But only about half that population has also received a booster dose.The post Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine will cost $110-$130 per dose
first appeared on Ariana News.
