Cyprus Mail 2 August 2021 - by Reuters News Service
Pfizer raised the price of its Covid-19 vaccine by more than a quarter and Moderna by more than a tenth in the latest EU supply contracts, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The new price for the Pfizer shot was 19.50 euros ($23.15)against 15.50 euros previously, the newspaper said, citing portions of the contracts seen.
The terms of the deals, struck this year for a total of up to 2.1bn shots until 2023, were renegotiated after phase 3 trial data showed their messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines had higher efficacy rates than cheaper shots developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The price of a Moderna vaccine was $25.50 a dose, the contracts show, up from about 19 euros in the first procurement deal but lower than the previously agreed $28.50 because the order had grown, the report said, citing one official close to the matter.
Pfizer declined to comment on the contract with the European Commission, citing confidentiality. “Beyond the redacted contract(s) published by the EC, the content remains confidential and so we won’t be commenting,” the company said.
The revenue gap between mRNA vaccines, whose genetic instructions prompt cells to make viral proteins that prime the immune system, and more traditional rivals that contain either viral proteins or an inactivated virus, is set to widen further next year according to forecasts compiled for the FT by Airfinity, the report said.
The life sciences consultancy predicts sales of Pfizer’s shot will hit $56bn with Moderna’s reaching $30bn, as they dominate the high-income markets, according to the report.
The European Commission said on Tuesday that the EU is on course to hit a target of fully vaccinating at least 70 per cent of the adult population by the end of the summer.
In May, the EU said it expects to have received more than a billion doses of vaccines by the end of September from four drugmakers.
($1 = 0.8425 euros)
