Senators to grill Moderna CEO on its four-fold price hike of COVID-19 vaccine that feds helped make

Prominent drugmakers want to more than quadruple the price of their COVID-19 vaccines when the shots transition to the commercial market later this year, sparking a showdown with congressional lawmakers who say Pfizer and Moderna benefited from taxpayer largesse and are now gouging the public to pad handsome profits.

Senate Health Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders will grill Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel over the proposed hike at a highly anticipated hearing next week that will underscore tensions between Big Pharma and lawmakers outraged over ballooning drug prices.

Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist from Vermont, is angry because Moderna benefited from collaboration with the federal government to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to market but is now planning to charge $110 to $130 per dose once f …