Nations eye changes in vaccination pacts
A year after struggling to find adequate supplies of covid-19 vaccines, a number of European countries are overflowing with shots they can’t use — and they’re telling drug companies they don’t want to pay for more.
Health officials from European Union members including Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Finland, the Netherlands and the three Baltic states met Wednesday to discuss amendments to contracts with producers such as Pfizer, as supplies overflow and storage costs mount for shots with short shelf lives.
The virtual meeting, organized by Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski, comes after appeals in recent weeks from some individual EU members to the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.
Some countries are seeking to amend so-called advanced purchase agreements signed with producers, as demand for shots wanes and budgets come under strain from the fallout of the war in Ukraine and the costs of accommodating refugees.
Adjusting deals with suppliers could grant member states the right to “re-phase, suspend or cancel altogether vaccine deliveries with short shelf life,” prime ministers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania wrote in a joint letter to Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen late last month.
In a separate letter, the health ministry of Bulgaria, which has the EU’s lowest vaccination rate, called for an “open dialog” with the commission and pharmaceutical companies, saying the current arrangement forces member states to “purchase quantities of vaccines they don’t need.” Vaccine purchase commitments are also limiting the ability to provide health services to refugees from Ukraine, the letter said.
The commission spearheaded vaccine provision for the bloc and other European countries, leading to deals with Pfizer and BioNTech and with Moderna that assured billions of shots at the height of the pandemic. But many nations, including some with low vaccination rates, are now scrambling to cut costs as demand for vaccines falls off.
Romania, one of the EU’s least vaccinated countries, has sold doses to Germany and Hungary in the face of oversupply and storage shortages. Hungary in turn sat out a recent round of joint purchases to reduce its own excess supply.
Poland last month triggered a “force majeure” clause after failing to renegotiate a deal with suppliers, refusing to take on new supplies or pay for additional doses.
The commission said May 13 that it reached an agreement with BioNTech and Pfizer to adjust delivery schedules to member states.