Thanks to deep pockets, Germany snaps up extra coronavirus jabs
Some EU countries bet too heavily on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
When it comes to EU vaccine solidarity, Germany is looking to have its cake and eat it, too.
While Berlin championed the bloc's joint purchasing of coronavirus vaccines while holding the European Union's rotating presidency in the second half of 2020, it simultaneously made additional agreements with vaccine producers — including BioNTech/Pfizer and CureVac — for extra doses. And it's now purchasing additional vaccines other EU countries didn't want.
Germany, a country of 83 million people, said it's getting 94 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, 64 million from the EU and 30 million from a separate bilateral deal. On top of that, Berlin will buy doses that other countries don't buy, securing 50 million of 160 million Moderna doses — far more than its pro-rata allocation.
Countries can, in the end, choose to purchase fewer vaccines — and Germany's approach to snap up the leftovers seems to be catching on. France, too, has already begun to purchase some leftover doses, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, delegate minister in charge of industry, said Thursday. Denmark also is doing this.
Still, Germany’s actions are technically a violation of the Commission’s vaccination strategy, as the bloc agreed to allocate coronavirus vaccines by population and not talk bilaterally with the companies it was negotiating with. But a Commission official said it complies with "the spirit of the EU vaccine agreement" because Germany’s extra doses will come after the Commission’s supply.
The Commission official added that the EU will purchase a “substantial amount of additional doses” from BioNTech/Pfizer coming, reportedly between 50-100 million.
Others are not convinced. Massimo Galli, director of the Infectious Diseases Center of the Sacco Hospital in Milan, called it "wrong, and not a nice thing to hear about," while Dutch MEP Mohammed Chahim called it "pure vaccine nationalism."
The German government has spent the past week under fire domestically as well. Both politicians and media are blaming the federal government, specifically German Health Minister Jens Spahn, for failing to secure sufficient doses, calling the EU purchase a vaccination “disaster."
The issue, though, is that many EU countries bet big that Oxford/AstraZeneca — the cheapest vaccine the Commission secured, at less than €2 — would be first to get regulatory approval, and they didn’t want to bank on pricier, more complicated mRNA vaccines, three EU diplomats said.
One of these diplomats said that Germany pushed EU countries to purchase another 100 million doses of the BioNTech vaccine in September after the original discussions were complete. EU countries declined, however, because they considered the vaccine too expensive and difficult to store. Germany then signed its own deal for 30 million extra doses.
The BioNTech vaccine is the second most expensive in the EU’s portfolio at €12 per dose, while Moderna's is the most expensive at nearly €15, according to a price list accidentally published in December.
“Not all member states are in good financial shape,” the second EU diplomat explained.
The third diplomat added that the dry ice required for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine “seemed like a hassle,” while Germany “lobbied for more doses.”
One for all, all for one?
Germany’s mRNA gamble might pay off, as it will land a total of nearly 100 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. The government said it will get 64 million doses from the EU's procurement and another 30 million doses on top of the EU’s vaccination strategy. (The Commission would not confirm these numbers.)
Meanwhile, Germany's population size should have meant that it would receive roughly 30 million doses of the Moderna vaccine; instead, the government said it's purchasing extra doses from EU countries that didn't order their full allocation of the expensive jab.
It's not certain which countries aren't purchasing their full orders, as neither the Commission nor Moderna would confirm how many doses each country is ordering. Calculations by POLITICO, using publicly available figures, indicate that several EU countries may have purchased fewer doses than they were eligible to buy — although not all information is clear or up-to-date.
Poland, for example, will order only 6.6 million Moderna vaccines despite being eligible for over 13 million doses. Bulgaria secured 500,000 doses, about two million fewer than it could have purchased.
Slovenia has secured a mere 26,000 doses, while it was entitled to over 600,000 more. Greece also bought less than its permitted share, purchasing 1.8 million doses when it could have scooped up around two million extra. In addition, Belgium has ordered two million doses of the Moderna vaccine when its population size would have allowed it to secure around four million.
Portugal also said it would purchase a total of 2.8 million doses of the Moderna jab — below the share of doses it is eligible for based on its population size. “Portugal received, or is going to receive, all the vaccines it wanted to purchase,” Portugal’s Health Minister Marta Temido said.
None of these countries has confirmed whether their unclaimed doses are going to Germany, but Temido said Portugal’s doses were going to a pot for other EU countries to buy from.
When asked in December whether its extra deals violate the strategy, Spahn said the country approached BioNTech (and CureVac) only "once EU procedures had been concluded [and] when it became clear that all 27 member states would procure vaccines which reflected their needs."
“We thought, we’re going to find a larger number, but there was not really a larger need from member states at that stage,” Spahn added.
There remains the issue of how much the Commission knew, and when.
Until this week, it did not acknowledge any bilateral agreements EU countries had with vaccine producers.
On Wednesday, the Commission acknowledged Berlin’s separate deal with BioNTech but said its understanding was that the doses would come from the Commission’s 100 million top-up in December.
On Thursday, however, a Commission official acknowledged the existence of Germany’s separate agreement.
And late on Thursday, the French government said it, too, would get extra doses by purchasing leftovers from other countries. “We indeed have a strategy for the second round where we can take more [doses] or not. We have been able to do so in some specific cases,” Pannier-Runacher told reporters.
Pannier-Runacher declined on Thursday to communicate the number of doses, saying the government wanted to have “institutionalized and European” communication on this.
The deals and the small purchase numbers underscore how some EU countries didn't want to fork over the money for the mRNA vaccines. In November, Bulgarian media reported that the country didn't even want to purchase vaccines that required ultra-cold storage. It later changed course and signed on to all the EU vaccine deals. Government officials had also expressed fears that Bulgaria would in fact have too many vaccines through the EU mechanism.
Countries have “some regret now,” the third EU diplomat said, which is why they “badly want to get more … now.”
Other countries haven't properly prepared to use them, so they’re waiting for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to be approved this spring —“they’ve invested a lot” in that one, said the second EU diplomat. At the earliest, European regulators said they would make a decision about the British vaccine by the end of the month.
The third EU diplomat conceded the vaccine strategy is not a “proper international agreement as such, [but] more of a gentleman’s agreement.” So there is "no way to sanction anyone. And [the Commission is] trying to make it look correct now."
The diplomat added that this isn't an issue: "As long as the EU contracts are delivered as promised, it’s OK."
Zia Weise, Elisa Braün, Cornelius Hirsch, Nette Nöstlinger, Merlin Sugue, Sarah Wheaton, Lili Bayer, Sofia Diogo Mateus, Eline Schaart and Mari Eccles contributed reporting.
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany ... countries/
Vladimir, STOP! 
