Pfizer expected to hike U.S. COVID vaccine price to $110-$130 per dose

Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani discusses Pfizer raising prices for COVID vaccines

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, the cost of Pfizer's COVID vaccine is going to quadruple after the current purchase program expires in the US. Earlier this week, Julie Hyman spoke to the company's CEO Albert Bourla about pricing here's what he had to say

ALBERT BOURLA: The vaccines will be priced based on their cost effectiveness. And the cost effectiveness is multiple of what it is right now the price when we give to the governments in the pandemic.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yahoo Finance senior health reporter Anjalee Khemlani here to break it all down for us. How big of a surprise is this? This is sort of an expected thing.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: This is an expected thing. The number is the part that's new. So $110 to $130, that's what the news that we just found out. And that's from an analyst call yesterday that Pfizer had.

And I want to dig down into the details because it is important to understand what's baked in to this pricing. It's things like the cost of a single dose vaccine packaging, the fact that they're now going to be distributing through multiple sources rather than just through the government and through that single channel of the distributor. And the mailing, and delivery service, and transportation, that all goes away once the government contract ends.

And so what they're looking at is early Q1-- or sorry, late Q1, so earlier next year is when they're looking to really transition more into this commercial environment. That also includes, by the way, the discussion about the cost and who's paying for it. It's going to be borne by insurers. And so most Americans won't really be impacted by this price shift.

But it's important to point out that Pfizer did note that the uninsured are going to be taken care of. In a quote, they said, "Eligible US residents without insurance will be able to access the COVID-19 vaccine for free." So that stays in place as well through their current assistance programs for patients.

So all of that put together really, you know, paints a picture of an expected commercial market. The price itself is not outrageous. We do know that there are vaccines within that price range over $100. So like you said, not really unexpected.