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Vaccine fever, with countries around the world scrambling to get as many doses as possible, has delivered the infamous knife in the handle to pharmaceutical companies. When the European Commission signed the contracts of the 27 member countries, it had to accept some conditions imposed by the six groups with which it reached an agreement.
Contract
One above all: in autumn there was no guarantee of the result, for example Sanofi postponed the conclusion of the trial until the end of 2021; AstraZeneca had some problems. Therefore, no pharmaceutical company is committed to the end result. This also applies to Pfizer which has a restriction on quarterly supplies (for Italy, remember, you must deliver 8,749,000 doses before March 31, another 8,076.00 before June 30), but in fact you have complete freedom of choice at the time of the deliveries.
What’s more: Pfizer is deciding, at its discretion, which vaccination centers to send more doses to, which fewer. This infuriates the governors because there are Regions such as Abruzzo and Umbria that do not have a decrease in supply, others like Lazio that register a 25 percent cut, others like Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia that have seen arrivals halving of vials.
In this way, it becomes difficult to ensure regular administration of the second dose to those who have been vaccinated. The withdrawal must take place after three weeks; yesterday in Spallanzani, in Rome, some of the operators received the second injection. Lazio plans to take advantage of 30 percent of the stock it had in the freezers, but other regions could have a much more difficult time.
The office of the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency confirmed yesterday the figures: “Pfizer has decided in a completely arbitrary way how to redistribute the new supply” and “in view of the 562,770 planned doses, 398,800 will be delivered”. “This decision – reads the note of the commissioner’s structure – not shared or communicated to our offices will produce an asymmetry between the individual regions.”
Pfizer doses less
On a national scale, the cut is 29 percent, in absolute terms Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto are the most affected regions with around 25 thousand doses, then Lazio with 12 thousand and Puglia with 11,700. The governor of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga, whose region has suffered a reduction of 54%, infuriated: «It is unacceptable: I think we need a rebalancing, where the cut is divided equally in the country. I listened to Pfizer, they tell me that from the following week we must return to normal supply, but if we are not sure, the risk is that we will have to decide to stop the vaccination campaign.
Commissioner Domenico Arcuri, guest of Domenica In, explained that the goal is to begin vaccinating people over eighty years of age starting next week, but failure to comply with Pfizer agreements could lead to a postponement. Arcuri: «On January 29, the EMA meets to evaluate the possible approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine, if this happens we will have another 40 million vaccines and another 16 million in the first quarter of this year. We will be able to accelerate the vaccination campaign, anticipating, for example, fragile subjects between 60 and 70 years of age and other risk categories.
The suspect
One question remains: Does Pfizer penalize Italy and Europe because other countries, from the rich United Arab Emirates to the United States, pay more? To the host of Domenica In, Maria Venier, who asked this question, Arcuri replied: “I can’t answer, I can give you a smile …”. How to say: yes, the suspicion is there and it is heavy.
Last update: 00:19
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