Moderna’s CEO Bancel Suggests That Lower Demand For The Covid-19 Vaccine Is A Justification For Quadrupling Of The Price

Last month, during a Senate hearing in which Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel testified regarding the quadrupling in list price of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, he cited lower consumer demand as one of several reasons for the need to raise the price. To an economist like myself, but also to the general public that’s an extraordinarily odd justification. Higher prices don’t reflect lower demand. Rather, they’re a function of a sub-optimal market.