Too early to know vaccine prices, official (Representation) said
London / Chicago:
Coordinators of a global coronavirus vaccine funding program are looking at a wide range of potential prices for COVID-19 injections, with a reported price of $ 40 per dose the “highest number” in that range, said declared one of the co-directors of the project. Monday.
Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccine alliance, which co-leads the COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 injections, said the facility does not have a specific target price and will seek also to negotiate tiered prices for the richest and the richest. poorer countries.
Berkley dismissed comments from European Union sources last week, saying the COVAX facility was targeting a $ 40 price tag for COVID vaccines for wealthy countries. EU sources had said the EU would seek cheaper deals outside the COVAX program.
“There was a wide range of numbers, and they (EU sources) released the most numbers,” Berkley said in an interview. He said that in a presentation to EU officials, COVAX officials gave “a range of different prices.”
“And that ($ 40) was the maximum price in the range for high-income countries, rather than a fixed price,” he told Reuters.
COVAX is co-led by GAVI, the World Health Organization and the CEPI Coalition for Outbreak Preparedness Innovations and is designed to ensure rapid and equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines once it is released. they are developed.
Its goal is to secure the supply and deliver 2 billion doses across countries that sign up by the end of 2021. GAVI said earlier this month that more than 75 countries have expressed interest in join COVAX.
Berkley said most vaccines are so early in the testing process that it’s too early to know what the final price will be.
“The truth is, no one has a clue of the price, because we have no idea which vaccine (potential COVID) will work,” he said.
He said questions about which technology might be most effective, whether the vaccines would be single or double dose, or what the yields of the manufacturing facilities might be, remained unanswered and would all influence the price of vaccines.
Berkley said COVAX has started putting together estimates based on what is known, but there are no firm prices. “The challenge is to try to come up with a cost. Anyone who tells you they know is not being honest.”
Berkley, who through the GAVI alliance negotiates with manufacturers to bulk purchase vaccines for use in poor countries, said drugmakers frequently use a tiered pricing approach, in which countries more poor pay a price, middle-income countries a higher price, and rich countries pay. the highest price.
He said it was not clear what the makers of potential COVID-19 vaccines would come up with, but they were trying to come up with cost estimates based on what they know so far.
“You’re going to have a range of different prices, depending on which ones (vaccine candidates) are going to be successful.
“Frankly, it is likely that we will 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 bonus” in the cost of COVID-19 vaccines that encourages companies to put millions of doses at risk, before they even know if their vaccine candidate works. “We consider that to be 15 or 20% of the cost,” he said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
