The price of Covid vaccines ordered by the European Commission from pharmaceutical groups was to remain confidential. According to the Financial Times, laboratories Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna recently renegotiated their contracts with the European Union, and increased their prices. The British daily, which was able to consult these contracts, affirms that the price of a Pfizer vaccine goes from 15.50 euros to 19.50 euros and that of Moderna from 19 euros to 21.50 euros.
The rise comes as concern over the outbreak of the delta variant mounts and studies show that the messenger RNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech should remain effective against this variant. At the same time, new clinical trials have made the hypothesis that a third dose of vaccine is necessary for effective protection more plausible.
150 million additional doses of Moderna vaccine
The European Commission declined to comment, emphasizing the confidentiality of contracts. Contacted in turn, Pfizer and Moderna have not yet reacted. The Commission has always refused to communicate the price of the vaccines ordered. In December, a Belgian minister posted on Twitter – before erasing it – a table giving details of the amounts promised by her government to manufacturers for each of the six vaccines ordered, with the unit price in the EU: from 1.78 euros for the vaccine of the Swedish-British group AstraZeneca, to 14.70 euros for that of the American Moderna.
In May, the European Union signed a new contract to purchase up to 1.8 billion doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, available until 2023. At the end of June, the European Commission had also announced that it had purchased 150 million additional doses of Moderna vaccine. The amount of neither of these two contracts had been disclosed at the time.
Two announcements which allowed the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to affirm at the beginning of July that the European Union had reached its goal of having enough doses in July to vaccinate 70% of its population. adult population, or 336 million people.
With AFP
