Read in PDF: Pfizer Biontech – Moderna

Contracts reveal interesting new details. For example, the price of the Pfizer vaccine. The figure of 15.50 per dose for the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine that has been talked about for months is not exactly correct: that is only the average between two different prices agreed with the pharmaceutical company. In fact, the company sold its serum for € 17.50 for the first 100 million doses, and € 13.50 from 100 to 200 million doses. But then the price goes up: for all further orders made within 3 months of the authorization granted by Ema (therefore until March 21), it goes to 15.50 euros per dose. After, again at 17.50 euros. And the price looks set to rise again in the future. For the moment, however, Moderna is the most expensive vaccine on the market: 18.80 per dose.

The contracts also confirm that, in the event of damage from side effects, the compensation will fall almost exclusively on the states. Concessions made to pharmaceutical companies in the field of civil liability have been debated throughout Europe for months. But the text reiterates that the use “takes place in a period of epidemic conditions and the administration of the products will be conducted under the sole responsibility of the Member States”. Pharmaceutical companies are liable only in the event of willful misconduct or a proven violation of Good Manufacturing Practices (the good manufacturing practices that all companies are required to comply with). Patents, on the other hand, remain in private hands, despite the indemnity and public funding.

As already seen in the case of Astrazeneca, the agreements seem to protect the big pharma also against any delays in deliveries, a circumstance that has occurred in recent weeks. In particular, a clause has been included in Pfizer’s contract whereby, if the Ema authorization arrives by August 15, 2021 (as happened) but the company’s production is insufficient to meet the expected orders, the latter simply undertakes to review the delivery program on the basis of unspecified “fair and just principles”. For Moderna, however, the conditions seem slightly stricter: it is written that if the delivery is delayed by more than 90 days, the States can cancel the order.

It should also be noted that the annexes to Moderna’s contract include a statement of the costs incurred to start production: from $ 85 million in raw materials to $ 173 million in investments in structures, mainly in the Lonza plant. The cost estimate was one of the requisites to justify the large advances recognized by the Commission. However, the same does not happen in the agreement with Pfizer.

Report had told the details of the negotiation between the big pharma and the European Union in the service ” In the hands of the vaccine ” by Manuele Bonaccorsi and Lorenzo Vendemiale last January 25 .html.