Competition May Not Be Enough to Keep Covid Shot Costs Down (1)

Pharmaceutical companies are coy about what they’ll charge for an eventual Covid-19 vaccine, and several shots hitting the market at once may not be enough to keep costs down.

The National Institutes of Health previously had trouble recruiting companies to pursue vaccines for infectious diseases like Ebola and West Nile virus, but nearly 200 vaccine candidates are in development for Covid-19. With global demand for the shots, several vaccine options won’t necessarily create market competition to drive down costs. However, that doesn’t mean pharmaceutical companies will be price gouging.

“They know that they have to walk a careful line. They ...