How much do Covid vaccines cost
How much does the European Union pay for the doses of Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Curevac and Sanofi vaccines? Here are facts and numbers
The prices of vaccines purchased by the EU have been made public. For a few minutes and by chance, but what must have been top secret information to protect competition is now a pulcinella secret.
The most expensive vaccine is that of Moderna: 18 euros. More than 16 euros of difference compared to the less expensive one, of Astrazeneca: 1.78 euros.
Let's go step by step.
THE PRICES OF VACCINES
Let's start with the prices.
BioNTech / Pfizer: 12 euros
Modern: $ 18
Oxford / AstraZeneca: € 1.78
Johnson & Johnson: $ 8.50
Sanofi / GSK: 7.56 euros
CureVac: 10 euros
THE TWEET VACCINE PRICE DETECTOR
The prices of vaccines purchased by the EU were revealed by a tweet from the Belgian budget secretary Eva De Bleeker. The Belgian politician, Politico reports , tweeted a table with the price of each vaccine purchased by the EU and how much Belgium will spend in total on Covid vaccines, according to Belgian news site HLN.
Based on the prices above, Belgium will purchase more than 33 million vaccines for a total of € 279 million.
THE EU COMMISSION ASKED FOR THE SECRET
Data – those revealed by De Bleeker – considered sensitive and therefore to be kept secret. The Commission had not disclosed what was agreed in the individual agreements with Big Pharma even to the European Parliament. The reason? Protect competition.
THE (NON) COMMISSION COMMENT
And it is precisely with the aim of keeping prices confidential, the Commission said: “We will not comment on what happened in Belgium, but the prices of vaccines are confidential”.
PFIZER'S COMMENT
The tweet went awry for Pfizer too. "These prices are covered by a confidentiality clause in the contract with the European Commission," Elisabeth Schraepen, spokesperson for the US pharmaceutical company for the Benelux region, told Belgian newspaper Le Soir .
THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF BIG PHARMA ON ANTI COVID VACCINES
Not just prices. The confidentiality of the deals, now that the prices have been revealed, would no longer make sense. Or maybe not.
In fact, in those contracts, the liability (or deresponsibility) clauses of Big Pharma were also in writing in the face of any serious negative reactions and problems. Is this perhaps the very point why those purchase contracts must remain secret?
THE COMPLAINT BY THE EU PARLIAMENT
This point, more than that of prices, also worries the European Parliament which has organized numerous hearings to get (unsuccessfully) responses from the EU.
“Today we have very little information on the terms of the contracts that have been signed by the European Commission and some laboratories. We wanted to have more information on the commitments made by the large laboratories, if they will live up to what has been signed and if they will be able to assume their responsibilities. Even the amount of these contracts, we do not know, ” said centrist French MEP Pascal Canfin , chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, at a hearing.
SANDRA GALINA: THE RESPONSIBILITIES REMAIN OF THE BIG PHARMA
However, Sandra Gallina, head of the Directorate General for Health for Europe, denies that there are clauses in the contracts that can take the responsibility off the pharmaceutical companies. “We have focused on safety and if there is any damage, the responsibility will lie with the pharmaceutical companies, a very difficult element in the negotiations that cost me a few sleepless nights…”, said the Hen.
THE OK FROM THE EU TO THE PFIZER VACCINE
Meanwhile, in these hours the ok has arrived from Ema, the European Pharmaceutical Agency for the Pfizer vaccine, which was also followed by the green light of the EU. Vaccination across Europe should start as early as December 27th.
“Today we add an important chapter to a European success story. We have approved the first safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19. More vaccines will arrive soon. The doses of the vaccine approved today will be available for all countries ”, commented Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission.
Today we add an important chapter to a European success story, by making available the 1st # COVID19 vaccine for Europeans.
More will come.
It will be available to all EU countries at the same time, on the same conditions #EUvaccinationdays https://t.co/4Xa17PQkMv
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 21, 2020
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/quanto-costano-i-vaccini-anti-covid/ on Tue, 22 Dec 2020 08:54:02 +0000.