Senators press Moderna CEO on COVID-19 vaccine price hike

By TOM MURPHY
AP Health Writer

Moderna’s CEO is defending a plan to more than quadruple the company’s COVID-19 vaccine price. But he also says the drugmaker will work to ensure patients continue paying nothing at drugstores or clinics. Stephane Bancel appeared before a Senate committee Wednesday. He says the drugmaker will charge a list price of around $130 per dose for the vaccine in the U.S. That price is expected to go into effect later this year. Until now, the federal government had been Moderna’s lone U.S. customer, buying doses in bulk to make sure people weren’t charged anything.