The European Commission made public on Tuesday the contract signed with the Sanofi and GSK laboratories to pre-order their anti-Covid vaccine, the third document of this type unveiled by Brussels for the sake of transparency.
Read also: Anti-Covid vaccines: why the EU hides entire parts of the contract with AstraZeneca
Under strong pressure from MEPs, who denounce opaque negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry, the Commission had already published the contracts concluded with the German CureVac and the Swedish-British AstraZeneca.
The European executive, which negotiates on behalf of the Twenty-Seven and has so far signed six contracts to reserve more than 1.2 billion doses, assures to be held to confidentiality as long as the companies concerned do not give the green light.
Like the previously published documents, the Sanofi-GSK contract, accessible online, has been stripped of many elements deemed "sensitive", blackened to be made illegible: provisional delivery schedule, prices and amounts advanced by the EU to support the development of the vaccine , factories concerned etc.
A contract signed in mid-September for 300 million doses
The Commission had signed this contract in mid-September with the French Sanofi and the British GSK to reserve up to 300 million doses of their vaccine in development.
"
Sanofi and GSK will use their best reasonable efforts to ensure the supply of the indicated volumes and (respect) the delivery schedule
", but "
the anticipated volumes and schedules are purely indicative and based
" on the manufacturing assumptions at the time of the contract, details the text.
Brussels reserves the doses, but it is then up to the Member States to place firm orders with the laboratories and take care of the logistical issues.
The price per dose will be increased by an “
additional cost
” (the exact figure of which has been blacked out) if the total purchases made by the States do not exceed 150 million doses.
Specific cases of liability, censored in the document
The two laboratories will be held not responsible (“harmless”) in the event of lawsuits of thirds, negative consequences or side effects resulting from the deployment of the vaccines, the States having to bear any compensation as well as the expenses of defense of the vaccines. two groups ... with the exception of specific cases, censored in the published document.
Read also: Vaccines: are the contracts between the European Commission and the laboratories secret?
Sanofi and GSK also ensure "to
strive
" to provide "
at least 200 million doses
" for an international initiative to supply the most vulnerable countries.
The recombinant protein vaccine developed by Sanofi and GSK, initially announced for summer 2021, is no longer expected, at best, until the end of the year.
Clinical trials have turned out to be less good than expected.
