The Pfizer vaccine should remain free

Increased costs for the consumer are greedy

Jackie Marquez / Asst. Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

America’s commercial approach to medicine is now affecting COVID-19 vaccines. Last month, Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company and major producer of COVID-19 treatments, announced that they plan to raise the cost of their coronavirus vaccines. Their plan will nearly  quadruple the current price. According to Reuters, the company plans to charge between $110 and $130 per dose. The vaccine is currently free to Americans through the U.S. government’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, but the government pays around $30 a dose. However, if the company follows through with their plan to raise prices by 2023, this will soon change.

Changing prices would drastically increase Pfizer’s revenue, but it would also make the vaccine less accessible. In raising their prices, Pfizer demonstrates the pharmaceutical greed America has grown accustomed to. With drug companies charging unreasonable prices for necessary medicines, legislation capping the cost of drugs is necessary to ensure Americans have access to medications they need.

With this price change, Pfizer is boosting their profits. According to Oxfam, a charity dedicated to crisis relief, it costs Pfizer as little as $1.20 a dose to produce the vaccine. Forbes estimates that this price inflation will gain the company between $2.5 billion and $3 billion in revenue. The uptick in price is far from acceptable. This additional profit would likely go toward their value on Wall Street rather than additional research or development.

As research by Lazonick et al. titled “Financialization of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry” shows, large pharmaceutical companies are more likely to spend extra income on stock buybacks and cash dividends, rather than further innovation. Stock buybacks, the process of rebuying a company’s own shares and providing cash dividends, a payment to stockholders, increases the value of the company’s shares. Forbes reports that in previous years, Selling, General and Administrative spending made up 34 percent of Pfizer’s total expenditure. Research and development only made up 19 percent. While Pfizer and other drug companies still devote a portion of that revenue to the further development and production of products, this disproportionate spending comes across as greedy.  

The company’s goal is to commercialize the vaccine. Rather than the government subsidizing it, individuals would have to pay out of pocket or go through their insurance company to get vaccinated. This is standard protocol for other drugs, but it’s a relatively new practice for the COVID-19 treatments. In August, Eli Lilly, a company that produces antibody treatment for COVID-19 patients, allowed its products to be sold commercially. Although commercialization is standard in our healthcare system, this change in vaccine distribution makes the treatments less accessible, especially for lower income individuals.

Under the U.S. government’s policy, the vaccine is universally accessible. Anyone can get the COVID-19 vaccine regardless of insurance coverage. In a commercial market, the vaccine would be virtually free to those with insurance, but costly to those without. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that eight percent of Americans are uninsured.
In an analysis done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, most uninsured Americans are low-income individuals who are more impacted by the expense of insurance. Commercialization in turn contributes to cycles of poverty.

Low income individuals and families may be unable to pay for insurance because of its price. If they were to need medical treatment in the future, they would have to pay out of pocket, which leads to higher medical bills. In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that people without insurance are twice as likely to have issues paying medical debts than those with insurance. A lack of insurance coverage means a lack of affordable treatment in the short term and potential long-term health issues, or debt as a result.

Raising prices of vaccines and boosters makes them less accessible to low-income individuals. Although COVID-19 cases and related deaths have decreased over the last few months, the California State Government reports that there is still a daily average of 2,460 cases in the state, and thousands of people a day are still receiving vaccines. COVID-19 is still a real threat. In making vaccines less accessible, Pfizer potentially threatens control of the disease. Their change in price has consequences that can lead to illness and or death.

In quadrupling the vaccine’s price and moving toward commercialization, Pfizer is acting like a typical pharmaceutical company. However, this norm must be changed. Companies should care more about their impact on patients than their own profits. Until patients and their treatments become the priority, it is imperative that the government steps in to prevent companies from exploiting their customers.

Legislation capping the prices of medicines must be implemented. This year President Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act which requires the federal government to negotiate the prices of certain medication covered under Medicare. It also caps the cost sharing of insulin to $35 for people with Medicare. This act is a start, but it only targets unfair pricing for Medicare enrollees. It does little for those without insurance. Legislation should be targeted at corporations and set a standard for the pricing of medicine. Pfizer should be held accountable for its price gouging of vaccines, and legislation setting a price cap for key medicines would do just that.