The Chief Executive of Moderna, Stephane Bancel, on Saturday said that his company will charge governments between Rs 1855 (USD 25) and Rs 2755 (USD 37) per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Talking to German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS), Barcel said that the price of the coronavirus vaccine will depend on the number of doses ordered by the governments.
"Our vaccine, therefore, costs about the same as a flu shot, which is between USD 10 and USD 50," he was quoted as saying.
On Monday, an EU official involved in the talks said the European Commission wanted to reach a deal with Moderna for the supply of millions of doses of its vaccine candidate for a price below USD 25 per dose.
"Nothing is signed yet, but we're close to a deal with the EU Commission. We want to deliver to Europe and are in constructive talks," Bancel told WamS, adding it was just a "matter of days" until a contract would be ready.
Moderna has said its experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second developer to report results that far exceeded expectations after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
The EU has been in talks with Moderna for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine at least since July.
(With Reuters inputs)
