US Sets COVID Vax Price At $40, Similar To Flu Shot

July 23, 2020 Coronavirus, Medicine

The U.S. government has set a benchmark for COVID-19 vaccine pricing in a $2 billion deal announced on Wednesday with Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech that will likely pressure other manufacturers to set similar prices, industry analysts told Reuters.

The deal, which is contingent on an approvable product, secures enough vaccine to inoculate 50 million Americans for about $40 a person, or about the cost of annual flu shots, and is the first to provide a direct window into likely pricing of successful COVID-19 vaccines.

It also allows for some drugmakers to profit from their efforts to protect people from the virus that has killed some 620,000 people worldwide, almost a quarter of those in the United States.

U.S. sets global benchmark for COVID-19 vaccine price at around the cost of a flu shot https://t.co/tBhVrV7v69 pic.twitter.com/MPlGKfZacm

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020