The European Commission and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have signed an agreement to reduce the number of deliveries of Covid vaccines, agreed in the third purchase agreement signed between the two parties in 2021 during the pandemic. The deal is about 450 million doses, which should be delivered by 2023, but where ten Poland-led member states are protesting, threatening to break the contract.
The financial impact of the agreement between Brussels and Pfizer is unclear. The Commission writes that the agreement provides for “a reduction in the amount of doses purchased by Member States under the contract”. “Doses originally agreed upon in the contract will be converted to discretionary orders upon payment of a fee”. Essentially, countries will be able to decide whether to order vaccines. However, the ones to be ordered will be more expensive than the price already determined. According to Financial Times calculations, the EU as a whole planned to purchase 1.1 billion Pfizer vaccines (manufactured with German BioNTech), with a total value of 21.5 billion euros.
What will happen now? Even if not all of the 450 million doses stipulated in the convention are ordered, the Commission notes that Member States “must continue to guarantee the strategic stockpiles of vaccines they need to protect vulnerable parts of their populations and cope with the epidemic”. A possible epidemiological evolution of the Covid-19 virus.”
Poland, which first raised the issue by arguing that the amount of vaccine Brussels agreed on in 2021 is no longer necessary when the pandemic is over, has already opposed the hypothesis of an additional “tariff” for the doses to be vaccinated in recent weeks. may be ordered in the future, this is called a kind of “cancellation fee”.
Source: Today IT

Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.