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meThe arguments used by the EU Commission to justify its “vaccination strategy” against criticism from Germany over the weekend sound less defensive. It has ordered two billion doses from six manufacturers for the entire European Union, the second vaccine – that of the American manufacturer Moderna – will be approved this week, the EU ensures that the rest of the world is also supplied, and the 27 Member States support the Brussels vaccine strategy, announced the EU authority on Twitter.
None of this is wrong, but it only partially answers questions from Germany, for example Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). Why, for example, did the EU Commission not order more vaccines from Biontech-Pfizer even though the company had offered them? Shouldn’t the EU have asked for as many vaccines as possible, no matter how much it cost? And: Why have far fewer people been vaccinated in the EU than in Britain or Israel? Each of these questions has its justification. On the one hand. On the other hand, it is also true for each of them that it is easy to know everything better in hindsight. Because it was unclear if and when a manufacturer could offer a product that was ready for market, EU member states relied on risk diversification in their vaccination strategy in the summer.
The portfolio, which the EU Commission negotiated until November, includes up to 405 million cans from the Tübingen-based manufacturer Curevac, 400 million each from the British-Swedish company Astra-Zeneca and the US manufacturer Johnson & Johnson each. with up to 300 million cans from Biontech-Pfizer and the French company Sanofi-GSK, as well as 160 million cans from Moderna. Should Brussels have asked for more? Especially the Biontech and Moderna vaccines, when it became clear that they would be the first to be approved. The somewhat cheap answer today is: probably yes.
The heads of both companies have stated in recent days that they could have made more cans available to the EU when the contract was signed in November. The reluctance of the EU Commission was probably due to three reasons. The first was that the Brussels negotiators were suspicious of the new mRNA vaccines from Biontech and Moderna and did not want to take risks. The second reason was the large price differences. The Moderna vaccine costs 18 euros per dose, the Biontech-Pfizer 12, and two vaccines are required for both. The Astra-Zeneca vaccine, of which only one dose is required, costs only 1.76 euros, according to the Belgian government. A Modern vaccine is twenty times more expensive than an Astra-Zeneca vaccine, assuming the same efficacy. Extrapolated to 450 million EU citizens, this results in a cost difference of € 16.2 billion (Moderna) to € 792 million (Astra-Zeneca).
Was the EU Commission under pressure from member states?
Third, by the time the contracts with the expensive manufacturers were signed in early November, there was still hope that the Astra-Zeneca vaccine would hit the market faster. It was only clear at the end of November that the vaccination study against Astra-Zeneca had to be restarted. Apparently, it was also due to Astra Zeneca’s supposedly good prospects that EU negotiators put a stop to talks with Biontech-Pfizer and Moderna. They probably feared being accused of wasting EU funds.
Over and over again we hear in Brussels that Eastern European countries in particular have lobbied not to spend too much money. Has the Commission acted too clumsily, under pressure from the Member States? It has long received accusations from the EU Parliament that its negotiating strategy is not transparent and that it has to make contracts with companies public. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides never said much about it. She emphasizes something different. The “bottleneck” of vaccination is currently not due to orders, but to limited production capacities.
The reason more people have been vaccinated in Britain than in the EU is that the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine was previously approved in Britain. Since the quotas had long been set, the EU will now catch up with the British. In addition, the commission wants to reorder Biontech. Overall, the quantity of the three products ordered by the EU from Biontech / Pfizer, Moderna and Astra-Zeneca, a total of 860 million doses, is sufficient for all planned vaccines in Europe. It will take a few more months for them to occur, regardless of the orders.
