BRIEF—COVID-19 vaccine to be priced at $32-$37 per dose, says Moderna CEO

US biotech Moderna revealed on Wednesday that smaller volume agreements for its investigational COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 have been executed at between $32 and $37 per dose. or up to $74 for a full course.

"We will be responsible on price well below value during the pandemic," chief executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said on a conference call, adding that larger volume agreements under discussion will be at a lower price.

The price Moderna is charging for small orders is higher than the $19.50 per dose agreed to by US pharma giant Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech with the US government, while AstraZeneca and Oxford University have mentioned a price of ‘just a few dollars’ per dose.

The comments came following the release of second-quarter financials for Moderna, which has no marketed products, and reported a narrowing of loss for the period to $117 million, compared to $135 million for the like 2019 period. The company has so far received around $400 million in deposits for potential supplies of mRNA-1273, Mr Bancel revealed.