Sen. Bernie Sanders lambastes big pharma over upcoming price hikes on COVID vaccines

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders eviscerated big pharmaceutical companies in an appearance on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday, slamming them for a planned spike in the price of COVID-19 vaccines.

Sanders, head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, pledged to use his seat on the panel to question manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccine over their plans to significantly raise the cost of the jab after it transitions from the government to the private sector in the coming months. “Truth is, [the] pharmaceutical industry is enormously greedy, charging us outrageously, uncontrollably high prices. We’ve got to deal with that. As chairman of the relevant committee, I intend to do what I can.”

Sanders pointed out the hypocrisy of the pharmaceutical companies raising prices on consumers whose tax money funded the research and development of the vaccine in the first place. of course, we want the drug companies to do the research and development,” he said. “By the way, taxpayers of this country spent $45 billion a year through the NIH to help with that research and development, including Moderna and the vaccine.”

In January, a Moderna official revealed to The Wall Street Journal that the company would likely quadruple the cost of the vaccine once the national stockpile runs out. A Pfizer official echoed similar plans, prompting concern on Capitol Hill over the pharmaceutical industry’s “corporate greed.” In a letter to Moderna CEOs in early January, he called the move “unacceptable” and warned it would cost taxpayers “billions of dollars.”