Excess of accumulated doses leads EU to renegotiate covid vaccine contracts

The countries of the European Union (EU) no longer want to pay for the doses of covid-19 that they do not need. With almost 80% of European adults having at least one dose of the vaccine (March 2023), the European Commission has been forced to renegotiate with pharmaceutical companies the agreements for the advance purchase of vaccines due to their surplus.

This is recognized by the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, in an answer to a question from the MEP Michèle Rivasi to which she has had access THE OBJECTIVE. “Circumstances have now changed –hospital indicators are below 32% and deaths below 7%– and the Commission is working with Member States and industry to find a solution to the imbalance between demand and supply of covid-19 vaccines».

In total, according to European Court of Auditors, the Commission signed eleven contracts with eight vaccine manufacturers worth €71 billion on behalf of Member States to purchase up to 4.6 billion doses. In June 2022, some 1.7 billion doses had been distributed, however, with nearly 3,000 doses in stockEurope signed for 2023 the world’s largest covid-19 vaccine procurement contract: 1.8 billion BioNTech-Pfizer injections; in addition to a second contract with Moderna to obtain 150 million serums “to launch the reinforcement phase of the response to the pandemic.”

Given this situation of excess supply and the demand of several countries – Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania or Hungary – to renegotiate the supply conditions, Brussels – which has not wanted to report on the number of doses that have expired in the States members – has been forced to Negotiate with pharmaceuticals to adapt delivery times to the needs of the countries to partially cover their needs.

In Spain, as THE OBJECTIVE reported exclusively, almost 14 million covid vaccines (13,870,197) have expired in the warehouse of the Ministry of Health. In addition, the autonomous communities have returned to the central government 2.876.230 of dose due to expiration dates close to their endas reported by the Spanish Medicines Agency (AEMPS) to this medium through a request through the Transparency Portal.

Pfizer suspends its delivery

Thus, Kyriakides points out in the letter that “the Joint Negotiation Team continues, on behalf of all Member States, to negotiate with BioNTech-Pfizer for a reduction in the number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered in 2023.” Furthermore, he adds that, in light of these negotiations, deliveries have been suspended until agreements have been concluded and points out that “I already know have approved various modifications to the purchase agreement with BioNTech-Pfizer».

Although it is not yet clear what the renegotiated price would be in Europe, in the United States, Pfizer hopes to charge a price of $110 to $130 per dose in exchange for reducing the number of inoculations.

For its part, the European Commission reports that approximately two thirds of the vaccine doses produced in the EU (more than 2 billion doses of vaccines) have been exported to 167 countries. Member States have shared almost 475 million doses, of which around 364 million have already been delivered to recipient countries (around 85% of them via COVAX).

The EU continues to approve new vaccines against covid

Although vaccine gluts are a problem around the world, Europe is facing a particularly large surplus at a time, moreover, when continues to expand its portfolio of new injections. This same Thursday the Spanish Hipra vaccine was approved a year late after receiving the go-ahead from the EMA. Thus, to date, the Commission has granted seven marketing authorizations to pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Novavax and the French Valnevaapproved on February 28 as a booster dose for adults 18 to 50 years of age.

Hipra signed a sales agreement with the European Commission in August for the purchase of 250 million doses. 14 Member States participate in this joint acquisition: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden and Norway.

This medium exclusively published the number of Hipra doses that have already been purchased by the Spanish Government. In total, 3.2 million booster doses at a time when 92.6% of the population has the full vaccination schedule.

Spain, 106 million vaccines in ‘stock’

Of those more than three million Hipra vaccines, Spain has bought others 55,643,380 of doses of inoculations against covid. By companies, our country has to receive the following number of vaccines against covid-19 in 2023: Pfizer-Biontech, 49.347.875 dosis; Modern, 2,747,505 doses; y Sanofi, 348,000 doses.

Since the campaign against the coronavirus began in Spain on December 27, 2020, the Spanish government has received almost 218 million doses, but not all of them have been used. As of January 23, 2023, the warehouses of the Ministry of Health house more than 106 million injectionsaccording to information to which THE OBJECTIVE has had access through a request to the Transparency Portal.

Thus, the documents, signed by Mary Jesus Lamasdirector of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps), show that Spain has received a total of 217,971,525 injections (4.5 doses per person). Of these, 1,403,117 have been destroyed and 110,388,347 have been delivered to the autonomous communities, which have inoculated 105,373,685. This means that Spain now counts with a stock of 106,180,061 doses (2.22 per person).