Conversely, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have committed to initially sell their vaccines without making a profit. Several companies have received grants of hundreds of millions of dollars from the US government or other states, but these agreements do not always come with clauses capping the final price of the doses. “We will not sell at cost,” Moderna chairman Stephen Hoge said in response to a question from a parliamentarian.
The biotech has developed one of the most advanced experimental vaccines, with large-scale so-called phase 3 trials, which are due to start next week on 30,000 volunteers. It received $ 483 million in US public money to fund research and development, but without a supply contract for the United States, said Stephen Hoge. “No, we will not sell at cost,” said Julie Gerberding, of Merck, who will have no vaccine ready until 2021 at the earliest, and has not signed a supply contract with Washington. “This is an amazing time and our award will reflect it,” added John Young of Pfizer. “During the pandemic, we will set the price of our potential vaccine taking into account the current global health emergency.”
But AstraZeneca, partner of the University of Oxford in the development of one of the most advanced vaccines at this stage, already in a phase 3 trial, signed a contract at 1.2 billion dollars with the Barda agency of the US government, which notably provides for the delivery of 300 million doses at cost price. The European Union signed a similar contract in June. Johnson & Johnson, also funded by the White House’s Operation Warp Speed ($ 456 million), separately said the price of more than a billion doses would be of no benefit during the emergency phase of the pandemic.
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