Ha ha! Just the very thought of Bernie grilling them under the TV lights suddenly gave them a new perspective on their own greed. Way to go, Bernie! Via the Daily Beast:
Just hours after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) swore to question Moderna's chief executive in a Senate hearing next month about plans to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine, the company abruptly reversed course, announcing in a statement that the vaccine would remain free to all consumers "regardless of their ability to pay."
The pharmaceutical giant was widely denounced last month in the wake of reports it was considering jacking up the price of its jabs more than 400 percent--to $130 per dose. The Biden administration also unveiled the expected end of a public health emergency in May, which would have left uninsured Americans paying out of pocket.
In an interview with The Washington Post published around noon on Wednesday, Sanders said he had Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel in his sights. "We're going to ask them, 'Hey, you made billions of dollars in profit on a vaccine that was developed because of taxpayer support... you've become a multibillionaire, and you think it's appropriate to cost the federal government even more money by quadrupling prices?'" Sanders said. "And I hope, I really do hope, that these people will reconsider this outrageous decision and decide not to raise prices for the vaccine."
If only more corporate giants could be shamed into doing the right thing. Nice work, Bernie! We know he'll keep an eye on them, because their stock price went way up after they announced the increase and they're not going to let go of that easily.
And let's not forget, the U.S. government already pays a massive share of Big Pharma's research and development costs. They repay us by charging outrageously high prices, more than anywhere else in the world. They run all those commercials about how much they spend on R&D, when actually, most of their money is spent on advertising!
Let's skip the "begging them not to let people die because of high prices" and go directly to nationalizing the pharmaceutical industry. (Now watch the paid trolls come out.)
