LONDON / CHICAGO (Reuters) – Coordinators of a global coronavirus vaccine financing scheme are studying a wide range of potential prices for COVID-19 vaccines, priced at $ 40 per dose reported as the “highest number “In that range, one of the co-leaders of the project said Monday.
FILE PHOTO: A small bottle labeled “Vaccine” is held near a medical syringe in front of the words “Coronavirus COVID-19” in this illustration taken on April 10, 2020. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic
Seth Berkley, executive director of the GAVI vaccine alliance, which is co-leader of the COVAX facility designed to ensure fair global access to COVID-19 vaccines, said the facility did not have a specific price target and would also seek to negotiate tiered prices for richer and richer products. poorer countries.
Berkley rejected comments from European Union sources last week that COVAX facilities were targeting a price of $ 40 for COVID vaccines for wealthy countries. EU sources said the EU would seek to secure cheaper deals outside of the COVAX scheme.
“There was a wide variety of numbers, and they (EU sources) came up with the highest number,” Berkley said in an interview. She said that in a presentation to EU officials, COVAX officials had given “a different price range.”
“And that ($ 40) was the top price in the range for high-income countries, rather than a fixed price,” he told Reuters.
COVAX is co-chaired by GAVI, the World Health Organization and the CEPI Coalition for innovations in epidemic preparedness and is designed to ensure rapid and equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are developed.
Its goal is to secure supply and deliver 2 billion doses to countries that enroll by the end of 2021. GAVI said earlier this month that more than 75 countries have expressed interest in joining COVAX.
Berkley said that most vaccines are so early in the testing process that it is too early to know what the final price will be.
“The truth is, no one has any idea what the price will be, because we have no idea which vaccine (potential COVID) will work,” he said.
He said questions about what technology could be more effective, whether the vaccines would be single or double dose, or what returns from manufacturing facilities could remain unanswered and all would influence the price of the vaccine.
Berkley said COVAX has started to gather estimates based on what is known, but that there are no firm prices. “The challenge is to try to generate a cost. Anyone who tells you they know is not honest. ”
Berkley, who through the GAVI alliance negotiates with manufacturers to buy vaccines in bulk for use in poor countries, said that drug manufacturers often use a tiered pricing approach, in which poorer countries pay a price. Middle-income countries pay a higher price and rich countries pay the highest price.
He said it is unclear what the manufacturers of potential COVID-19 vaccines will propose, but they are trying to come up with cost estimates based on what they know so far.
“It will have a range of different prices, depending on which (vaccine candidates) are going to be successful.
“Frankly, we are likely to have lower prices given the large volumes that we are trying to access here.”
Berkley said COVAX and several others are also including a “speed premium” in the cost of COVID-19 vaccines that encourages companies to do millions of doses at risk, even before they know if their candidate vaccine works. “We see 15% or 20% of what it will cost,” he said.
Reports by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Kate Kelland in London, Jane Merriman edition
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