Unique-EU could pay extra for Pfizer COVID pictures in return for decrease quantity
By Maggie Fick
(Reuters) – Brussels is discussing with Pfizer and BioNTech the potential for decreasing the as much as 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses the EU has dedicated to purchase this yr in return for the next value, a supply with data of the talks stated.
Additionally on the desk is an extension of the deadline for supply, presumably to the second half of 2024, the supply stated. They declined to be recognized as a result of the talks are confidential.
The negotiations are ongoing, and it’s not clear what the ultimate consequence could also be.
The talks come amid of world glut of COVID-19 pictures, and relate to the largest contract for vaccines of all these signed by the EU whereas the pandemic raged.
A European Fee spokesperson requested for touch upon the talks referred to as on vaccine makers to work with member states and the Fee “to make sure that the agreements replicate the altering state of affairs”.
The Fee “will proceed in view of adapting the availability of vaccine doses through the years to come back, and to increase it over a bigger time interval”, the spokesperson stated, declining to touch upon pricing or different particulars.
A Pfizer spokesperson declined to touch upon particulars of the discussions, however stated the corporate has proven ongoing dedication to accommodating EU member state considerations.
On the subject of value, the Pfizer spokesperson stated: “We now have at all times had a tiered pricing strategy for the COVID-19 vaccine, guided by agreed volumes and nationwide earnings tiers, to make sure fairness between agreements with nations with comparable financial profiles.”
A BioNTech spokesperson added that their firm “proceed(s) to work with the European Fee and governments to seek out pragmatic options whereas respecting the basic ideas agreed between the events in concluding the settlement”.
GLOBAL GLUT
Although the glut of vaccine is a matter worldwide, Europe is contending with a very large extra.
Most individuals within the EU who wished a major course of the COVID-19 vaccine, and those that have been later eligible for boosters, have acquired them. The EU’s drug regulator cautioned in November that uptake of booster doses had been disappointing.
In Might 2021, Brussels signed a contract with Pfizer and BioNTech to purchase 900 million doses, with an possibility for an extra 900 million doses, by the top of 2023.
Round half or extra of the primary 900 million doses from that contract haven’t but been delivered as a result of demand dropped final yr. The EU has not exercised the extra possibility.
Some 328 million folks within the EU out of a complete inhabitants of round 450 million have acquired the first course of a vaccine, based on Our World in Knowledge.
The talks over the undesirable doses are the newest in a collection of negotiations over adjustments to the 2021 contract. Brussels is below stress to chop the quantity as EU member states complain of strained budgets and no want to spend cash on unneeded doses.
At 19.50 euros ($21.22) within the Might 2021 contract, the quantity that European governments are contractually obliged to pay this yr totals between 7.8 billion and 9.75 billion euros.
It’s unclear what the renegotiated value in Europe could be. In the USA, Pfizer is hoping to cost an inventory value of $110 to $130 per dose within the fall, although that value doesn’t embody reductions.
EU officers have stated for months that there’s a mismatch between provide and demand of COVID-19 vaccines.
“We’re now not on the peak of the disaster, and this instantly impacts our demand for vaccines, whereas public funds are below nice pressure at this second,” EU Well being Commissioner Stella Kyriakides informed a European Council assembly in December.
“Our vaccine contracts must take the present state of affairs into consideration, and firms ought to present flexibility on that,” she added.
Final summer season, the 2 sides agreed to pause deliveries to offer EU nations time to manage what that they had acquired. That got here after EU governments warned Pfizer and different corporations that hundreds of thousands of doses might go to waste.
In November, they signed an modification that gave nations the power to have doses delivered and saved in warehouses, one other signal of the availability glut.
($1 = 0.9184 euros)
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Extra reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Patricia Weiss in Frankfurt; Modifying by Josephine Mason and Jan Harvey)