Moderna will offer loose COVID-19 vaccines to “uninsured or underinsured individuals,” the company announced Wednesday, pledging to make sure it continues vaccinations after the public health emergency ends in May and government-purchased materials run out.
“Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines will continue to be available at no charge to policyholders, whether they get them at doctors’ offices or local pharmacies. For the uninsured or underinsured, Moderna’s Patient Assistance Program will provide loose COVID-19 vaccines. “the company said in a statement.
The announcement comes as the vaccine maker is under scrutiny for its goal of increasing its value in the advertising market.
Rivals Pfizer and BioNTech have already shown plans to list their COVID-19 vaccines starting at $110 based on dosage, more than triple the fee Biden’s management paid for a massive procurement of updated COVID-19 boosters last summer.
But Democratic lawmakers have warned that Moderna opposes continuing with the same kind of price increases, bringing up federal money spent on subsidizing the company’s development of the vaccine.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday announced plans for a hearing titled “Taxpayers Paid Billions for It: So Why Moderna Would Consider Quadrupling the Price of COVID Vaccine?”with the CEO of the company as a witness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccines for Children program is already making plans to upload COVID-19 vaccines to its list of no-fee submitted vaccines for uninsured or underinsured children.
So far, however, Congress has not funded the Biden administration’s request for a sweep program to provide loose vaccines to adults who don’t have fitness insurance. and local associations to cover those uninsured injections.
“We don’t have a vaccination program for unsafe adults like we have for children. And that would be really helpful, and we’re running now, to see how we can make sure unsafe adults get vaccinated,” the CDC director said. Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a House hearing earlier this month.