Pfizer, how much will the new anti-Covid vaccine cost?
New vaccine, old questions. The EMA has authorized Pfizer's latest anti-Covid vaccine adapted to the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, also called Kraken. However, the renegotiation of the contract between the EU and Pfizer to reduce the number of deliveries will significantly increase the price of the doses. Facts, numbers and predictions
While Pirola, the BA.2.86 variant , is the last special observation of the World Health Organization (WHO), yesterday the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light to the first vaccine adapted to the Omicron XBB subvariant. 1.5, known as Kraken , a mutated form of the first subvariant of Omicron XBB, called Gryphon.
The winner in the Big Pharma competition is once again Pfizer/BioNTech, which said it was "ready to ship the vials to interested EU states". In fact, there will not be a centralized sale, with Brussels establishing how many doses to assign to each country, as happened with the first anti-Covid vaccines. Each State will therefore decide for itself and in Italy the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) will take care of it.
Meanwhile, after the renegotiation of the European Union with Pfizer to reduce the number of deliveries envisaged by the last contract signed in 2021 (which proved to be disproportionate in terms of costs and quantities), the price of the vaccine has increased by 400% .
THE NEW VACCINE
Pfizer's new anti-Covid vaccine is monovalent, i.e. it contains only the XBB.1.5 strain, and is recommended by the EMA in a single dose to subjects aged 5 years and over, regardless of previous vaccination history.
The EMA also recommends it for children aged 6 months to 4 years as part or for the entire three-dose primary vaccination course (depending on the number of doses previously received) or as a single dose for those with a history of completion of a primary vaccination course or previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The opinion of the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) was based on "all available data on Comirnaty and on the other adapted vaccines, including those relating to safety, efficacy and immunogenicity (the ability to trigger immune responses)" and on "new laboratory data demonstrating a strong response of the adapted vaccine against XBB.1.5 and related strains of the virus that causes Covid-19".
WHAT WILL ITALY DO
Italy, which will have to communicate the number of doses it wants to receive, according to the latest circular from the Ministry of Health has made it known that the anti-Covid vaccination campaign will go hand in hand with the anti-flu campaign .
The people to whom both vaccinations are recommended by the ministry are those who risk developing a severe form of Covid-19, the elderly, people with high frailty and family members or cohabitants who come into contact with them, pregnant women and operators sanitary.
They will be offered a 12-month booster dose with the updated vaccine, while the possibility of paying for it for those who do not fall into these categories is being discussed.
Meanwhile, the manifesto recalls, although the epidemiological situation and pressure on hospitals is under control, in Italy "the positive cases have doubled in the last week" and we are "the European country with the highest number of victims (165 in the last month) after Russia”. The percentage of beds occupied by positive patients is also increasing and this, as denounced by the Federation of Oncologists, Cardiologists and Hematologists (Foce), is especially worrying for frail patients hospitalized with poor immune defences, who do not obtain a strong protection not even with the vaccine. Hence the request from the Foce to restore the isolation of positive patients in hospitals.
THE RENEGOTIATION OF THE EU CONTRACT WITH PFIZER
The new agreement between the EU and Pfizer, reached at the end of May to reduce the number of deliveries envisaged by the last contract signed in 2021, provides that the originally contracted doses (900 million, with the option to purchase another 900 million, for an estimated maximum cost of 35 billion euros, borne by individual states) can be converted into optional orders upon payment of a fee, deductible from the price that member states would have to pay for the additional optional doses if they decide to activate them in the future.
In fact, the agreement provides that countries can continue to have access to additional doses up to the volume originally established until the end of the contract, in case they have to face a new epidemic wave. The window of time to order and receive vaccines, including those adapted to the new variants, has been extended up to 4 years, starting last May.
The European Commission, however, has not reported how much the supplies will be reduced nor the economic terms of the agreement and also the "compensation tariff" is not known how much it will be due to trade secrecy.
HOW MUCH VACCINES COST THE EU
However, that the renegotiation had a price is certain. Indeed, as the manifesto writes, "Brussels limited itself to declaring that 'the price does not differ substantially from what was initially agreed'". In that "substantial" lies all the difference.
The article then states that Pfizer has declared that in the United States "the cost of the new vaccine will be raised to 110-130 dollars per dose, that is more than five times more than the initial value". The reason is "to recover a turnover which, in the second quarter of 2023, fell by 54% compared to the previous year, after a record two-year period in which Pfizer became the world's leading pharmaceutical company".
Furthermore, as the renegotiation of the contract shows, the EU is linked for many years to come to the US pharmaceutical company because, the newspaper concludes, "at the pace maintained in 2023, the Pfizer doses booked will be enough for the next decades".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/pfizer-quanto-costera-il-nuovo-vaccino-anti-covid/ on Thu, 31 Aug 2023 11:58:05 +0000.