Drugmakers Do Expect to Profit From COVID-19 Vaccine

Officials from Moderna and Merck told congress yesterday that their companies do expect to profit from a COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna President Stephen Hoge and Merck’s Chief Patient Officer Julie Gerberding told the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee that they will not sell their vaccines at cost. Gerberding, however, noted that Merck’s decision is “premature for us as we’re a long way from understanding the cost-basis.”

Three other drug company executives testified at the hearing and had a different take on vaccine pricing. Meme Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, said his company is providing 300 million doses of its vaccine at no profit under its $1 billion contract with HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Macaya Douoguih, head of clinical development and medical affairs of Janssen Vaccines for Johnson & Johnson, said that her company is providing the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis during the pandemic phase of the COVID-19 outbreak.

And though Pfizer Chief Business Officer John Young did not commit to selling the vaccine at no profit, he did acknowledge that these are “extraordinary times, and our pricing will reflect that.”

The pharma executives also addressed the issues of the timing of vaccine approval and deployment. Young from Pfizer told the panel that Pfizer expects to deliver 100 million doses by the end of the year. Hoge from Moderna and Pangalos from AstraZeneca also pledged that their companies would have approved vaccines by the end of the year.

But Douoguih from J&J’s Janssen told the panel that his company expects to have efficacy data on its vaccine by early 2021 and should have 100 million doses ready by March. Gerberding, testified that Merck’s vaccine would not be available “until 2021 at the earliest.”

Lawmakers expressed deep concern about whether the FDA would cut corners on the safety issues surrounding the rush to deploy a vaccine. Gerberding said she was “quite relieved” that the agency is applying the “same high standards of safety and efficacy even under these emergency conditions that they would apply to any of the vaccines that we prosecuted in the past.”

Despite these assurances, Democrats remained skeptical. “Historically, I’ve been very confident in the FDA,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said. “But now that Trump is president, I still think there’s a real possibility that he will pressure the FDA to lower the standards.” — Jordan Williams