Everything had started badly.
In mid-January, Pfizer announced delays for its deliveries of anti-Covid vaccines to Europe.
The announcement stains, but it comes with a promise: once the plant in Belgium has been modernized, more doses will be able to leave it and therefore be supplied to the European continent.
Three months later, the commitment seems to have been held.
While the American group was initially supposed to deliver only 34% of the vaccine doses expected by France in the first half of the year, this share should ultimately rise to more than 60%.
It amounts to precisely 58% on April 12, or 40.5 million doses out of nearly 70 million, if one relies on the latest figures communicated by the General Directorate of Health.
But that's without counting the 7 million additional doses from April to June, announced Wednesday April 13 by the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune.
This bonus is explained in particular "by the continuous improvement of the production processes at our site in Puurs (Belgium) and by the expansion of our current facilities", assures the American juggernaut, joined by Le Parisien.
Undoubtedly, Pfizer has established itself as the flagship of vaccination in France.
In mid-April, it represents more than 70% of the 15 million doses administered, in a vaccination center or in a health establishment.
"The world leader in pharmacy"
How far away, the time when messenger RNA was the main source of concern.
For its vaccine, the group has joined forces with the German firm BioNTech, at the forefront of this revolutionary technology which has proved to be damn effective against the disease (more than 90 or even 95%) and would remain so against many variants.
"Each passing day shows that this technology is the most suitable", estimates the health economist Frédéric Bizard.
Doses should be stored in the freezer, but mRNA vaccines have another advantage, that of causing very few adverse effects.
This joins another element that Pfizer has taken advantage of: the woes of its competitors.
AstraZeneca, the main one, was initially undermined by the fairly frequent occurrence of flu-like symptoms after vaccination.
The investigations carried out on cases of thrombosis then led to the discovery of a proven link and its suspension in those under 55, the benefit / risk ratio not being as high in young people as in the elderly.
The same fate could fall on Janssen.
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Pfizer / BioNTech is not the only one in this mRNA market, also occupied by the companies Moderna and CureVac, among others.
But the first "started with very little infrastructure and does not have a large production capacity, and for the moment it wants to keep its independence", underlines Frédéric Bizard.
As for the second, of which 8 million doses were initially planned by the end of June on the French market, it is finally not expected before the second half of the year.
"Pfizer is the world leader in pharmacy, it is without comparison with the others", supports Nathalie Coutinet, lecturer at Sorbonne Paris Nord University.
As the Ministry of Health said at the end of February, "Pfizer will have, at least until June, a preponderant place".
Prices reassessed?
How far can it go?
Already, the chairman of the Steering Committee for the anti-Covid-19 vaccine strategy, Alain Fischer, has mentioned on TF1 the possibility of doing without AstraZeneca from July.
“Pfizer seems to perform a lot better in production, we didn't think it was going to increase its deliveries any further.
But this does not mean that we must abandon other vaccines, such as AstraZeneca, despite the exceptional serious accidents that have been reported, ”nuance Patrick Berche, member of the Academy of Medicine.
The authority has also just issued a new opinion, recommending to increase the time between the two Pfizer doses to… six months, against six weeks since April 14.
A "disruptive" proposal but which "would allow collective immunity to be achieved much more quickly with the same number of doses while ensuring satisfactory individual protection", assures the Academy.
"In the long term, I think that we will only order messenger RNA vaccines", considers for his part Frédéric Bizard, who is already looking towards "second generation, single-dose products that can be stored at room temperature. ".
The European Commission has just announced the opening of negotiations with Pfizer for a third contract for 1.8 billion additional doses of vaccine between 2021 and 2023. But at what cost?
The price of a dose has already fallen from € 12 to € 15.50 and it would be on the way to € 19.50, according to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, quoted by Euractiv.
Preparing for the future: we are starting negotiations with BioNTech-Pfizer for a 3rd contract.
It will foresee the delivery of 1.8 billion additional vaccine doses in 2021-2023.
Production of vaccines & all essential components will be based in 🇪🇺
Other contracts may follow!
- Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 14, 2021
Information that neither the manufacturer nor the European Commission wish to comment, hiding behind the confidentiality of contracts.
“The power is totally in the hands of Pfizer, which has a very dominant position in the market.
So prices are becoming more expensive, ”is not surprised Nathalie Coutinet, also a member of the appalled Economists.
The price is also what blocks the access of poor countries to this vaccine, unless you go through the Covax device.
Tunisia, for example, received in mid-March a first batch of 93,600 doses of Pfizer vaccines.
Viral vector products, such as AstraZeneca, are reportedly up to 10 times cheaper.
In the field of messenger RNA, the German biologist and co-founder of CureVac, Ingmar Hoerr, has already promised to the Express: “We were not the fastest, but we have a very competitive product which will be cheaper and more accessible.
"
