Late on Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a booster dose of vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc for people with compromised immune systems.
The vaccine makers say that evidence of waning antibody levels in vaccinated people after six months, as well as an increasing rate of breakthrough infections in countries hit by the Delta variant, support the need for booster shots. “We don’t know what the market forces will be,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in an interview last week. “At some point, this will become a more traditional market – we’ll look at what are the populations at risk, what value are we creating, and what are the number of products that serve that value. That will ultimately impact price.”Article content
Flu shots cost around $18 to $25 a dose, according to U.S. government data and competition has kept price increases in check, with producers raising prices 4 or 5 percent in 2021. “A lot of these firms aren’t even in the market yet. I think within a year’s time, all these companies will have booster strategies,” said Morningstar analyst Damien Conover, who covers Pfizer.
Still poke free