I am still feeling my way so look for glitches. Eric
________________________________
From: Eric Russell
Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2020 12:17 PM
To: uupretirees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <uupretirees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: vaccine
One sentence in this article makes me wonder whether the immune system
activation created by the vaccine might have a negative effect on people who
are immune suppressed--like transplant patients. Any thoughts? Eric
[The Washington Post logo]<https://www.washingtonpost.com/>Europe is paying
less than U.S. for many coronavirus vaccines
<http://a.msn.com/01/en-us/BB1c2RY9?ocid=sf>
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[cid:12a93c5e-1f56-491e-8666-edc0242f2fda]
The European Union is paying less money than the United States for a range of
coronavirus vaccines, including the Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation being rolled
out across the country, according to a Washington Post comparison of the
breakdowns.
[a group of people standing in a room: Medical workers carry cold storage boxes
containing Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate during Stage 3 trials in
Barcelona on Dec. 17.]© Angel Garcia/Bloomberg Medical workers carry cold
storage boxes containing Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate during Stage 3
trials in Barcelona on Dec. 17.
The costs to the E.U. had been confidential until a Belgian official tweeted —
and then deleted — a list late Thursday.
Comparing that list with U.S. calculations by Bernstein Research, an analysis
and investment firm, it appears that the 27-nation union has a 24 percent
discount on the Pfizer vaccine, paying $14.76 per dose relative to $19.50 in
the United States. Some of the difference may reflect that the E.U. subsidized
that vaccine’s development and the cost of shipping the European-made shots
across the Atlantic.
According to the Belgian document, the bloc will pay 45 percent less than the
United States for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine currently under development.
But it will pay 20 percent more than the United States for the Moderna vaccine,
which on Friday was authorized for emergency U.S. use. Both of those vaccines
were funded partly by the U.S. government as part of Operation Warp Speed, an
effort to expedite their development. The AstraZeneca-Oxford team received $1.2
billion, and Moderna got $4.1 billion.
[table]© The Washington Post
Like the United States, European countries generally plan to make the vaccines
free for citizens.
The per-dose prices of the vaccines are lower than for most brand-name drugs,
but the hundreds of millions of doses required to vaccinate entire populations
will drive up costs significantly for individual countries. Disparities between
the higher prices in the United States and Europe in overall drug prices have
long driven outrage in Congress.
Asked about the price differences between the United States and Europe, Pfizer
noted that the E.U. coronavirus vaccine purchase, 200 million doses, was double
that of the United States.
“Pfizer and BioNTech are using a tiered pricing formula based on volume and
delivery dates,” Pfizer said in a statement. “The agreement with the European
Commission for the supply of 200m doses, and an option to request an additional
100m, represents the largest initial order of our candidate vaccine to date.”
It said it would not disclose further details.
“AstraZeneca is providing the vaccine at no profit during the pandemic and the
price per dose varies depending on the supply chain. We are unable to comment
on specific agreements,” the company said in a statement. The company has
previously said it expected its vaccine to cost between $3 and $5 a dose, based
on the cost of production. It was not clear why the E.U. figure was so much
lower.
The U.S. Pfizer order has already been the subject of frustration, since Pfizer
urged Operation Warp Speed over the summer to purchase double what the United
States ultimately decided to order. By the time U.S. buyers asked for more
doses this month, the availability had been snapped up
elsewhere<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12/07/pfizer-vaccine-doses-trump/>
— including by Europe.
Operation Warp Speed said that it had negotiated extensively with each drug
manufacturer.
“Based on the significantly varying levels of developmental funding,
distribution costs, and other contract terms, we are confident we negotiated
the best possible price for the American taxpayer,”' the initiative said in a
statement. It noted that the price of Pfizer’s vaccine included distribution
across the United States and territories, including charter flights from
manufacturing sites in Europe.
[Coronavirus live updates]
Most vaccines currently under development require two doses, although Johnson &
Johnson’s — $10 in the United States and $8.50 in Europe — is a single shot.
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E.U. announces tentative vaccination schedule
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* [Coronavirus: Vaccines and Treatments] Coronavirus: Vaccines and
Treatments(The Washington Post)[The Washington Post Logo] The Washington
Post<https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-vaccines-and-treatments/vi-BB1c3dn0?ocid=NL_ENUS_A1_20201220_10_2&ocid=NL_ENUS_A1_20201220_10_2&bep_ref=1&bep_csid=24685>
* [The Path Forward: Strategic Preparedness] The Path Forward: Strategic
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* [Leadership During Crisis: A Conversation with Governors Gretchen Whitmer
and J.B. Pritzker] Leadership During Crisis: A Conversation with Governors
Gretchen Whitmer and J.B. Pritzker(The Washington Post)[The Washington Post
Logo] The Washington
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The two vaccines that are first in line for approval — Pfizer-BioNTech and
Moderna — are more expensive than others partly because they cost more to make,
the result of a never-before-used approach that primes the immune system to
defeat the coronavirus.
The E.U.’s finance arm offered a $122 million loan to BioNTech in June to help
develop the vaccine, followed by an additional $458 million from the German
government in September.
The other vaccine prices noted on the E.U. list were $9.30 for the one under
development by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, an 11 percent discount on the U.S.
cost, and $12.30 for the one under development by CureVac, for which the United
States has not signed contracts.
The E.U. has been secretive about the prices it negotiated for its 2 billion
doses of various vaccines, drawing fire from transparency advocates who say the
public and policymakers have a right to know how much their governments are
paying for the inoculations.
The E.U. negotiated as a bloc, but most other countries, including the United
States, are negotiating individual contracts with pharmaceutical companies. The
confidentiality clauses presumably benefit the manufacturers, since they make
it easier to vary prices from country to country.
[a large building: The Frankfurt Messe exhibition grounds in Frankfurt,
Germany, have been prepared as a vaccination center.]© Alex Kraus/Bloomberg The
Frankfurt Messe exhibition grounds in Frankfurt, Germany, have been prepared as
a vaccination center.
A spokesman for the European Commission, which negotiated the contracts for the
vaccines on behalf of E.U. members, declined to comment about the pricing on
Friday, other than to say disclosure was a breach of confidentiality clauses of
the contracts.
The Belgian official, State Secretary for Budget Eva De Bleeker, posted the
table of Belgium’s costs for vaccines on Twitter on Thursday, then deleted it
shortly afterward. Because the E.U. has negotiated collectively for vaccines on
behalf of its members, the same prices apply across all 27 nations.
A spokesman for De Bleeker confirmed the authenticity of the tweet, and said
that it came after a Thursday evening discussion in the Belgian Parliament and
opposition charges that there was no money to pay for the vaccines in the
country’s 2021 budget.
“The communication team posted the tweet to close the discussion,” said Bavo De
Mol, the spokesman. “We wanted to be as transparent as possible, but maybe we
were a bit too transparent.”
The breach was first
reported<https://www.hln.be/binnenland/zoveel-gaan-we-betalen-voor-de-coronavaccins-staatssecretaris-zet-confidentiele-prijzen-per-ongeluk-online~a3dceef4/?referrer=https%253A%252F%252Ft.co%252F>
by HLN, a Belgian newspaper. Late Friday, Belgian media noted there was at
least one error in the document — the number of doses of CureVac that the
country planned to purchase was incorrect — but said that the prices per dose
appeared to be accurate.
[a person standing in front of a refrigerator: Health workers operate a
deep-freeze refrigerator for coronavirus vaccines at a stocking facility under
military command in Bucharest.]© Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images Health
workers operate a deep-freeze refrigerator for coronavirus vaccines at a
stocking facility under military command in Bucharest.
Drug pricing is linked to a number of factors, including volume discounts and
other specific promises made by governments when they sign the contracts. Some
governments have agreed to limit the liability drug manufacturers will face if
side effects arise from the vaccines, for instance. In February, the Trump
administration offered vaccine manufacturers protection from lawsuits until
2024.
Europe has spread its bets relatively evenly among six vaccines, reserving 200
million to 300 million doses of all of them except the one produced by Moderna,
of which it purchased 80 million. A few countries, including Germany and
Hungary, have purchased additional vaccines on the side.
The European Medicines Agency is likely to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
on Monday, with a rollout across the E.U. expected the last week of this month.
The E.U. vaccines will be shared equally across the bloc based on each
country’s population size.
Birnbaum reported from Riga, Latvia; Rowland reported from Washington; and
Ariès reported from Brussels. Carolyn Y. Johnson in Boulder, Colo., also
contributed to this report.