After elevating the worth of COVID-19 vaccines greater than fourfold this yr, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told investors Monday that the corporate may even probably hike the worth of its lifesaving COVID-19 antiviral remedy, Paxlovid, elevating additional concern about entry and well being care prices.
The value of the drug is already $530 for a remedy course. That is what the US authorities paid for the drug within the emergency section of the pandemic. However, because the drug strikes from authorities distribution to the business market this yr, the worth is predicted to extend. Up to now, it is unclear what the brand new value will probably be.
In an organization investor name Monday, Bourla stated solely that the “pandemic value” of $530 is more likely to be “lesser” than the business value and that negotiations are starting.
One monetary analyst who follows the corporate, Evercore ISI’s Umer Raffat, told CNN that the worth may go up roughly three- to fivefold, to as a lot as $2,500 per course.
Regardless of the value finally ends up being, it’ll probably imply a co-pay for these with business insurance coverage, Bourla stated. Individuals with Medicare or Medicaid protection or who’re uninsured will nonetheless have entry to the drug through authorities affected person help packages.
Pfizer’s mixture antiviral drug (antivirals nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, offered collectively as Paxlovid) is meant to scale back the chance of hospitalization and dying in folks most liable to growing extreme COVID-19. That features older folks, these with compromised immune methods, and the unvaccinated. Information from earlier this yr instructed that it might also help protect against long-term COVID.
Nonetheless, a number of knowledge sources have instructed that Paxlovid has already grow to be underused in treatments recently attributable to quite a lot of attainable causes. Final week, Pfizer slashed its income projection for 2023 by $9 billion, from a variety of $67 billion to $70 billion right down to between $58 billion and $61 billion. The decline was attributable to a $7 billion lower in projected Paxlovid gross sales and a $2 billion lower in COVID-19 vaccine gross sales.
According to decreased Paxlovid gross sales, Pfizer additionally revealed that the US authorities will give again 7.9 million unused programs of Paxlovid to Pfizer in a “non-cash transaction.” In change, the federal government will get credit score for future purchases of Paxlovid for its federal packages.
Consultants anticipate that the upper price ticket for Paxlovid will solely erode curiosity and demand for the protecting antiviral remedy additional.
“The upper these prices are, the extra probably persons are to forego remedy,” Dr. Paul Sax, scientific director of the Infectious Illness Clinic at Brigham and Girls’s Hospital and a professor of drugs at Harvard Medical Faculty, instructed CNN. For individuals who find yourself utilizing the remedy on business insurance coverage, the additional prices will solely assist to drive up insurance coverage premiums additional.