Europe struggling with the resumption of infections driven by the Delta variant and the hypothesis of having to resort to a third dose, on the model adopted by Israel which has started vaccinating the over 60s with the 'booster', risks having to do reckon with an increase in the price of vaccines for Covid.
In fact, the rumors that have been circulating for months seem to be confirmed
by Financial Time
s which, managing to see some parts of the new Pfizer and Moderna contracts for the next supplies to the EU of 2.1 billion doses by 2023,
confirmed that the price is splashed
.
An increase that goes beyond tweaking upwards: the new cost of a Pfizer dose - reports the Ft - is 19.50 euros, four euros more than the 15.50 euros of the previous supply. For Moderna, the rate rises to $ 25.50 per dose from $ 22.60 in the previous agreement. But less than the 28.50 initially foreseen thanks to an expansion of the order by Brussels. Illustrating the latest quarterly, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla explained that vaccine prices for high-income countries are "comparable", while for low- and middle-income countries they are significantly lower. According to rumors collected by the City newspaper, Moderna instead turned out to be "arrogant" in the negotiations with theEurope showing its lack of experience in dealing with governments. The rumors of the Financial Times on the increase in prices confirm what was declared in recent months by the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, according to which the increase could have cost "approximately at least 18 billion euros".
And the increases, as well as the boom in demand, will have their effects felt on the accounts of the two pharmaceutical giants. Pfizer has in fact estimated in the last quarter of the April-June period a 30% increase in revenues from the vaccine for Covid to 33.5 billion dollars in 2021, a sharp increase compared to the 26 billion expected in May alone. In the second quarter alone, the vaccine generated $ 7.8 billion for Pfizer. And the same goes for Moderna, for which analysts expect vaccine revenues to jump to $ 30 billion. Despite the difficulties, the sales of the AstraZeneca vaccine are also expected to increase by operators, which are expected to rise to 15 billion dollars next year.
Vaccines are, according to the world's health authorities, the greatest weapon against Delta. "They work. The chances of getting seriously ill are very low" when you are fully vaccinated, said Anthony Fauci, the American super expert. Whoever contracts the virus even if vaccinated is "likely" to be "asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms - he added -. So the vaccine does exactly what we want, to protect against getting sick". While Florida is experiencing a surge in infections, the American vaccination campaign is proceeding slowly, with the United States being overtaken by the EU and the possibility of new restrictions on the horizon, as feared by Joe Biden, to deal with the 'unvaccinated pandemic' . Despite this, however,at least one million of the vaccines have been wasted since December in the US.