Will the price of the coronavirus vaccine become unaffordable?

The question would have to be asked first "unaffordable" for whom? That wealthy countries and nations will make the vaccine affordable for themselves seems to be out of the question here. Anyone who has recently followed the development of the coronavirus vaccine will certainly have noticed CureVac: A German biotech company based in Tübingen, which is regarded as the pioneer in Europe, and which recently received a lot of media attention; it was reported that Trump wanted to secure the vaccine of this company exclusively for the US. Science and research itself are very often presented in a positive light because they considerably improve our living conditions. Vaccines are at the top of the list, but "there are many hurdles before global immunisation is feasible". A footnote on science communication can still be mentioned, but when it comes to the competition in place, the forms of financing and funding flows, the global race and commercialization very few people will talk about it.

"How many new drugs rely on government-funded science? All of them!". The research is risky and many producers are dependent on public research funds. It is also obvious that the development of a vaccine is a collaborative project involving several nations and many other players. Traditional financial flows so far have been gone through basic research, which is usually publicly funded by universities, public extra-university research institutions, and the price of the drug itself in retrospect, which very often has nothing to do with the actual R&D costs. Those of my neo-liberal readers from the pharmaceutical industry who would now probably cry out loudly with the words: "No, but in our company we have our own basic research division, which has nothing to do with state subsidies!" should look up again the details in Rana Foroohar's book Makers and Takers.
There she describes in chapter 3 how taxpayers' money plays a role in the development of drugs and especially blockbuster drugs like vaccines, as well as how the usual financial strategies of the industry undermine the innovation of companies and their own R&D departments.

In the case of the coronavirus vaccine, an international vaccine alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was created by governments to distribute mainly public research funds, financially speaking to fill the vaccine gap. The coalition is new and has little experience yet in showing that private-public partnerships in this regard will work out. Although the kind of partnership is considered as the best, most effective and fast form of cooperation, a lot of criticism is expressed at the level of procedures for the allocation of funds in the face of the pandemic. The German business magazine plusminus criticizes the relaxation of the granting rules and policies for public funds to biotech companies, not only by CEPI but also on the side of the EU. Whether there are clear terms and conditions for the subsequent marketing or pricing of the vaccine, the EU is without comment. It seems that biotech companies will be free to set the price for the novel coronavirus vaccine themselves. In an interview with CureVac's Chief Corporate Officer Franz-Werner Haas, at least it becomes clear that the marketing is not subject to any contractual conditions imposed by the funding bodies.

In the urgent actions and developments of the drug, the academic research magazine The Conversation goes so far as to criticize the private-public partnership for the fact that not only the commercialization, but also the research in this case is entrusted mainly to private companies, which means that "public funds don’t guarantee accessible drugs" anymore. In a contrasting comparison, the case of Canada is mentioned, where universities and public research institutes are directly funded. This model, if no intermediary actors are involved and protective measures are taken, has been shown generally to fail on its path from discovery to the patients.

The conclusion that the coronavirus vaccine should be affordable and accessible is a desirable claim, but whether this will actually be the case is difficult to say today, especially as we cannot yet say for sure who and where this race will succeed.