HHS chief can’t promise affordable vaccine

Alex Azar

Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a congressional hearing yesterday that he can’t promise an affordable coronavirus vaccine.

“We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price, because we need the private sector to invest, ” he said  “….. Price controls won’t get us there.”

Azar is a former drug industry executive and lobbyist.  When he was a senior executive and then CEO of Ely Lily, a leading pharmaceutical company, the price of insulin tripled.

Update 2/28/2019.  Nancy Pelosi said that a CODIV-19 vaccine should be affordable.  Affordable?  Why not free?

If she is serious about what she said, she should be tasking the Democrats in Congress to be holding hearings and drafting legislation to make life-saving vaccines and drugs available, not just now but in emergencies to come.

2nd Update 2/282019.  Of course a coronavirus vaccine is something that doesn’t exist yet.  In a rational world, the world’s governments would be sharing information and working together to develop one.  Maybe they are.  I would like to think so.

Tags: Alex Azar, Coronavirus, COVID-19