COVID-19: Understand the price of a vaccine, from research to the bottle

How much does a vaccine really cost?Based on a study by the Imperial College of London, the deputy of La France rebellious François Ruffin has rebelled on Twitter: the sale price of the pfizer vaccine, he writes, is much higher than the cost of production.Producing a dose of the PFIZER vaccine costs 60 cents (0.50 euros)), while the European Union pays 24 dollars (19.50 euros)).

Can we conclude, on the basis of this study alone, that this margin "Gave Big Pharma", as unworthy.Ruffin, like other supporters of the release of patents on vaccines?

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In fact, it is difficult to summarize what a vaccine really costs its only production.What are we talking about exactly?Why is the sale price not the same on the whole globe?And how much does this vaccination ultimately cost a state like France?Decryption of the price of a vaccine, from production to distribution, including purchasing, from the example of the pfizer vaccine.

The cost of producing the vaccine for Pfizer

The figures cited by the deputy François Ruffin therefore comes from research carried out at the Imperial College of London by a laboratory specializing in systems engineering.This study was published in December 2020 in the journal Vaccine.

In the table below (second column)), the average cost of production for a dose of Pfizer (which contains 30 micrograms of active ingredient)) stands in fact at 61 cents.It costs $ 2.02 for a dose of the Moderna competitor vaccine (which contains 100 micrograms)).The last three columns concern another messenger RNA vaccine (mRNA)), curevac;The project-abandoned since-from vaccine to the self-amplified RNA of Imperial College;and an imaginary vaccine, using the same technology, but improved.

These costs take into account raw materials and means of production at the current price (without including a possible flight of courses)) allowing to obtain the active ingredient of the drug.The product finish costs (bottles, packaging, quality control, etc. are not included.)).The economic alternative weekly, which was among the first to relay this study, asked the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Imperial College of London to run its models again."It can be estimated that the filling-finishing part of a messenger RNA vaccine comes to 27 cents the 10 doses bottle," calculates Professor Nilay Shah, who heads this department.In the end, a pfizer-biontech vaccine would return to 88 cents and a moderna vaccine at 2.29 dollars.

But the calculation of the price of a vaccine does not stop there. Le chercheur à l’origine de l’étude à l’Imperial College, Zoltan Kis, explique au Monde : « Le prix final du vaccin va inclure d’autres éléments comme les coûts de R&D [recherche et développement], les essais cliniques, la distribution, la propriété intellectuelle et les frais juridiques, etc.We must also add a beneficiary margin to the sale price: indeed, some of these companies have invested billions of dollars in the development of arnm vaccine platform technology over the past decade.»»

Pharmaceutical and medical innovation is mainly based on an economic model funded by patents.By protecting their discoveries with these patents, laboratories can exploit them exclusively for a theoretical duration of twenty years.It is only after this deadline that the patent is lifted and allows other laboratories to develop generic drugs with the same formula, sold at cost prices.

Pfizer-Biontech and Moderna's mRNA vaccines, which have been put on the market in less than a year, are partly based on previous patents.In particular a technology designed by the University of Pennsylvania to manufacture a harmless messenger RNA for the organization, whose patent was filed in 2005.The two laboratories each paid $ 75 million to be able to exploit it.

The innovative technique consisting in stabilizing Spicule protein is also from public research, and as such subject to a license of use, which could represent up to $ 1.8 billion for the US State, according to a study from New York University. Mise au point par des chercheurs du NIH en 2016, cette technique consiste à ajouter une paire d’acides aminés (la proline)) à la protéine de spicule du coronavirus afin de stabiliser sa forme et la rendre nettement plus reconnaissable par les anticorps.For the moment, only Pfizer would have agreed to pay these rights of use, believes the New York Times (the amount is not known)).For the American daily, if the government does not force other pharmaceutical companies to pay them these royalties, it is perhaps to bring them then to share their know-how, as it wishes.

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Once a vaccine has been developed, compulsory clinical trials are also an expensive phase.For phase 3, the last before placing on the market, Pfizer could have spent at least $ 300 million (246 million euros)). A preuve, des chiffres anciens mais couramment évoqués, qui estiment à 7 000 dollars (5 747 euros)) par patient en moyenne le coût d’un essai de phase 3 pour le laboratoire.However, Pfizer brought together more than 43,000 participants for this large -scale test, and the tests continue, especially among the youngest.

The price negotiated by the European Union

Certains laboratoires vendent leur vaccin à prix coûtant, comme Johnson & Johnson et AstraZeneca (qui y a été obligé par l’université d’Oxford jusqu’à la fin de la pandémie)), soit entre de 2 et 7 euros la dose depuis la matière première jusqu’au conditionnement.Conversely, Pfizer has negotiated different prices with each interlocutor. Le tarif d’une de ses doses va ainsi du prix coûtant pour certains pays aux revenus faibles (autour de 5,50 euros pour l’Union africaine)) à près de 23 euros pour Israël, qui a voulu s’assurer un approvisionnement rapide.

For the European Union, the price was revised in April at 19.50 euros, according to indiscretions from Prime Minister Bulgarian, Boïko Borissov, reported by the Euractiv site.This price increases the price conceded since January (15.50 euros - the price of 12 euros sometimes mentioned corresponded to a price including a deduction linked to the European Commission)).Indeed, the pharmaceutical giant judged that it was time to return to a situation closer to the usual balance, reflected by prices, between supply and demand.

Le prix « normal»» pour un nouveau vaccin varie entre 150 et 175 dollars (123 et 144 euros)) par dose, avait rappelé le directeur financier de Pfizer, Frank D’Amelio, début février, dans un échange avec des investisseurs.He referred, with this fork, to the vaccines which will take several years to be profitable by the laboratory - when a vaccine against the flu, already designed in broad outline and sold every year, can be marketed for ten euros.

This favorable relationship to Pfizer between supply and demand is reinforced by the efficiency that mRNA vaccines seem to show against variants and the appearance of new strains in India or Brazil, which should consolidate a demand, which comesto be multiplied by the extension of vaccination to adolescents and children.

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The expense incurred by France

The European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of the 27 EU countries, and has notably ordered for more than 2 billion doses of Pfizer, may have to pay installments in the laboratory in order to provide additional funding for researchand production.But, ultimately, it is each state that pays its invoice with Pfizer or Moderna, once delivered.

En France, les vaccins vont coûter plus de 4,6 milliards d’euros à la Sécurité sociale cette année, a prévenu le Comité d’alerte sur l’évolution des dépenses d’assurance-maladie (Cadam)), le 1^er juin."This sum includes 3.2 billion euros in exceptional public health endowment France, which allows it to cover all the vaccine needs of the 2021 campaign. A cette dépense certaine, s’ajoutent 1,4 milliard d’euros de dépenses d’organisation de la campagne vaccinale, avec une hypothèse de taux de couverture de 70 % de la population»», détaille le Cadam.

Dans ces dépenses d’organisation sont inclus les salaires des médecins (440 euros la demi-journée)) et des infirmiers libéraux (220 euros)) mobilisés dans les vaccinodromes en plus du personnel de santé au statut fonctionnaire.But they do not include the operation of vaccination centers, currently supported by local communities.Between staff, medical equipment, development and maintenance of premises ... The cost is around 75,000 euros per month, for example calculated the city of Asnières-sur-Seine, in the Hauts-deSeine.

The state could reimburse a party, let glimpse Emmanuel Macron.Proof that the executive, even if he has to review his calculations, has already set the cost-benefit report in favor of the vaccine, it is the Minister Delegate in charge of public accounts himself, Olivier Dussopt, who said: "We will never be looking at the cost of vaccination, this is the best possible investment for the French and for companies.»»

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Mathilde Damgé

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