Pfizer angered after Belgian politician published prices for COVID-19 vaccine

By Marine Strauss

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – US drug maker Pfizer complained of a breach of confidentiality after a politician in Belgium on Thursday published the price per dose of COVID-19 vaccines ordered by the country, according to a newspaper Belgian.

Belgian Secretary of State Eva De Bleeker tweeted a table with the number of doses and the price per dose of each vaccine, after a 30-hour debate on the Belgian budget in parliament. She then deleted her tweet.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, whose COVID-19 vaccine is the first to be approved by Western regulators, are among the suppliers to the European Union, including Belgium.

Elisabeth Schraepen, spokesperson for the US drug maker for the Benelux region, told Belgian daily Le Soir that the publication of the details was a breach of confidentiality.

“These prices are covered by a confidentiality clause in the contract with the European Commission,” said Schraepen.

Related: EU plans to start vaccinations on December 27

The table briefly published by De Bleeker showed that the Belgian government had paid 12 euros ($ 14.7) per dose to purchase around five million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the EU had agreed to pay 15.50 euros ($ 18.34) per dose for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

The Belgian price does not take into account the non-refundable down payments of hundreds of millions of euros that the EU has made to many vaccine manufacturers to secure their vaccines, an EU official told Reuters.

EU governments pay the rest when they order their doses.

“We cannot say anything about this matter, everything about vaccines and prices is covered by confidentiality clauses, in the interest of the company and also in the interest of the ongoing negotiations,” a spokesperson said on Friday. speech of the European Commission during a daily press briefing. .

The General Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry of Belgium said the leak was a “serious breach of the confidentiality clause and harmed the government itself”.

The European Medicines Agency has said that an expert group will meet on December 21 to assess the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and inoculations in the EU could begin on December 27.

(1 USD = 0.8161 euros)