Pfizer and Moderna hike prices for COVID-19 vaccines in EU

Vaccine suppliers Pfizer and Moderna have raised the prices of their COVID-19 vaccines in the contracts made with the  European Union, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The newspaper said it had seen part of the new supply contracts showing a price hike for the Pfizer shot to 19.50 euros from 15.50 euros previously.

The price of a Moderna vaccine was $25.50 a dose, the contracts show, up from about 19 euros in the first procurement deal but lower than the previously agreed $28.50 because the order had grown, the Financial Times reported.

The price hikes sees the Pfizer product price increase by a quarter, while Moderna raised its price by a tenth.

Pfizer refused to comment on the contract with the European Commission, citing confidentiality.

The pharma groups are expected to earn tens of billions of dollars in revenue this year as new deals are signed with countries for booster shots against the Delta variant.

Pfizer and Moderna have gained strength in negotiations after concerns regarding safety and efficacy in some rival jabs.

According to the Financial Times, an official “said the companies had capitalised on their market power and deployed the “usual pharma rhetoric . . . Vaccines work so they increased the ‘value’.”

Moderna’s Covid vaccine is its first commercially approved product.