SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Moderna said on Sunday that it would charge governments between $25 and $37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered.
“Our vaccine therefore costs about the same as a flu shot, which is between $10 and $50,” Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS), according to Reuters.
The vaccines, both built using new technology known as messenger RNA or mRNA, represent powerful new tools to fight the pandemic.
On Monday, an EU official involved in the talks said the European Commission wanted to reach a deal with Moderna for the supply of millions of doses of its vaccine candidate for a price below $25 per dose.
“Nothing is signed yet, but we’re close to a deal with the EU Commission. We want to deliver to Europe and are in constructive talks,” Bancel told WamS, adding it was just a “matter of days” until a contract would be ready.
Moderna has said its experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second developer to report results that far exceeded expectations after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
The EU has been in talks with Moderna for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine at least since July.
Moderna, part of the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program, expects to produce around 20 million doses of the vaccine for the United States this year, millions of which the company has already made, and is ready to ship if it receives FDA authorization.
