Belgian minister mistakenly reveals prices EU negotiated for Covid-19 vaccines

Credit: Aaron Chown/PA

A Belgian government minister has accidentally disclosed how much the European Union has negotiated to pay for six front-running coronavirus vaccines, something officials had refused to disclose because of commercial confidentiality.  

In a now-deleted tweet, Belgian finance minister Eva De Bleeker revealed that the EU had secured 33 million doses hor €279 million (£253m) for this year, with funds set aside to purchase a further 500 million doses in 2021.   

By contrast, the UK has secured 267million doses at a cost of £2.9bn, according to a National Audit Office report earlier this week.   

However, the UK government has refused to reveal how much it has paid per dose or the contractual arrangements in the event of a company failing to develop a viable vaccine, turning down a Freedom of Information request from the Telegraph earlier this week for “commercial sensitivities”.   

The Belgian minister’s tweet revealed that the EU has managed to negotiate much lower prices than the companies initially advertised.    The EU is paying €12 or $14.70 per dose for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, compared to the company’s official price of  $19.50 per dose.

And it has secured the Moderna vaccine for $18 per dose, compared to the company’s $25 to $37 per dose.

Ms De Bleeker said the tweet was a mistake by her communications team but confirmed the pricing was correct.

She later said: “One of the pillars of my policy is transparency and I have been a bit too transparent, perhaps. I emphasize that my attitude does not endanger anything. The vaccines are ready, they are coming, the money has been provided for them.”

The European Commission would not comment on the vaccine prices.

Mark Eccleston-Turner, a lecturer in global health law at Keele University, said it was impossible to say whether the EU had secured a good deal because there was no transparency around the pricing of vaccines.

“There is a considerable lack of transparency around products we’re paying for and we’re actually paying for them twice. Countries around the world have paid for the research and development of these vaccines and now we are paying for the product. We have no idea if this is value for money,” he said.