The European Commission would obviously have avoided this transparency operation.
A Belgian minister posted on Twitter the prices, hitherto remained confidential, of anti-Covid vaccines, causing embarrassment in Brussels where the importance of respecting this "obligation" of discretion was recalled on Friday.
“Everything relating to information like the price of vaccines is covered by confidentiality, it is a very important obligation,” said Stefan De Keersmaecker, a spokesperson for the European executive, during the daily press briefing in Brussels. .
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“It is a contractual requirement” within the framework of the orders already placed with the pharmaceutical groups, assured the head of the spokesperson, Eric Mamer, stressing that the latter had obtained the respect of this rule everywhere in the world.
"I wanted to be transparent"
On Thursday, Belgian Secretary of State for the Budget Eva De Bleeker published on her Twitter account a table giving details of the amounts promised by her government to manufacturers for each of the six vaccines ordered, with the unit price charged in the 'EU.
She quickly deleted her tweet but screenshots were taken and the content was still visible on Friday.
Thus the general public has learned that the unit price varies from 1.78 euros for the vaccine of the Swedish-British group AstraZeneca, to 18 US dollars (or 14.70 euros) for that of the American Moderna.
"I wanted to be transparent, maybe a little too transparent", then declared Eva De Bleeker, admitting her blunder in front of the Belgian deputies.
But that "does not in any way endanger" the deliveries of vaccines to Belgium, assured the Flemish liberal official.
The communication of this table supposed to remain confidential took place during an intense budgetary debate, while Eva De Bleeker was criticized by opposition deputies for the lack of means released by the Belgian State for the purchase of vaccines.
Friday remained on the Twitter thread of the Secretary of State only this message on the subject: "Here are the facts: 33.5 million vaccines will be purchased this year for 279 million euros".
Another amount of 500 million will be provisioned, this time from the 2021 budget, for future purchases.
De feiten: 33.5 miljoen vaccines worden dit jaar aangekocht aan 279 miljoen € uit de coronaprovisie 2020. Ook in de coronaprovisie 2021 is nog 500 miljoen beschikbaar voor oa vaccines.
- Eva De Bleeker (@EvaDeBleeker) December 17, 2020
Disclosure of prices paid in Europe exposes the Commission to difficulties with pharmaceutical companies.
Confidentiality "is in the interest of the company (already under contract, editor's note) but also in the interest of the negotiations underway with other companies, with other vaccine developers," continued Stefan De Keersmaecker.
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The Pfizer group effectively recalled that the prices were "covered by a confidentiality clause provided for in the contract with the Commission", according to a spokesperson for Pfizer Benelux joined by the Belga agency.
Here are the unit prices as they appear in the table:
AstraZeneca: 1.78 euros
Johnson & Johnson: $ 8.50
Sanofi / GlaxoSmithKline: 7.56 euros
Pfizer / BioNTech: 12.00 euros
Curevac: 10.00 euros
Moderna: $ 18.00