"The prices are going up quickly": Bulgarian PM reveals huge scandal around the negotiations between EU and Pfizer for the price of the COVID-19 vaccine

It should be a big headline in every major media outlet. Yet, in the era of corporate feudalism (where the mainstream media are bought by big corporations), this story has passed almost unnoticed, despite the fact that it has been brought to light by a Prime Minister of a European country.

Almost buried in a "corner" of the Reuters website, the short report reveals that according to the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov, the EU is about to make a new deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, at a significantly increased price:

The bloc is seeking the new supply deal with the two companies for up to 1.8 billion vaccines, of which is 900 million optional, to be delivered in 2022 and 2023, Reuters reported on Friday.

Borissov, speaking on Sunday, said the EU was negotiating the new contract at a price of 19.5 euros ($23.22) per dose.

“The prices are going up quickly,” Borissov said during a trip to a village in southern Bulgaria.

“Pfizer’s (price) was 12 euros, then increased to 15.5 euros. Now for 2022 and 2023 the European Union contracts are being signed for 900 million vaccines, but already at a price of 19.5 euros,” he said.

That is a significant increase from 15.5 euros per dose the EU has paid for the 600 million Pfizer shots it has so far contracted, according to an EU internal document and officials.

An EU official involved in talks with vaccine makers confirmed the price cited by Borissov for the new contract but said negotiations had not been wrapped up yet.

The new contract would cover variants, meaning that the companies would offer enhanced shots if mutations of the coronavirus became prevalent, a second EU official said.

Borissov said: “Roughly this will cost 18 billion euros, at least ... That means that in the new budgets financial experts should earmark bigger, much bigger buffers for vaccines.”

It would be worth to note here that Pfizer's initial price of 12 euros was not officially announced by any EU institution originally. It was leaked by Eva De Bleeker, Belgium's Budget State Secretary. As Business Insider reported on December 19, 2020:

On Friday, Eva De Bleeker, Belgium's Budget State Secretary, tweeted a list showing how much the EU was paying per dose for six of the leading treatments, as well as how many units the government had ordered. De Bleeker quickly deleted the tweet, but not before local news outlets were able to publish screenshots.

According to the table leaked by De Bleeker, Belgium ordered just over 5 million vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech at the price of 12 euros. So, the total cost would be roughly 61 million euros. With a price at 19.5 euros per dose, the company, for the same total amount of vaccines, would earn 38 million more. That is, more than half of the total amount with the initial price of 12 euros.

So much for the EU officials' hard stance against Big Pharma for failing to deliver the agreed COVID-19 doses in some cases.

The revelation depicts perfectly the fact that the whole EU is hostage of the Big Pharma which sets the rules. Especially when the panicked EU officials desperately seek millions of vaccines to minimize the impact of the pandemic in the European economies.

It also depicts the level of failure of the dominant economic model. A Europe that has been taken over by the lobbyists, has become completely unable to protect public health. How is it possible one of the allegedly most economically and technologically advanced areas of the planet not being able to produce its own vaccine?

This is the result of almost five decades of complete domination of the free market, financial capitalism and neoliberalism.

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