Germany must destroy 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, wasting billions of euros

According to Politico, Germany has had to throw away 83 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine at a preliminary cost of 1.6 billion euros and has another 120 million unused doses in stock.

Data provided by the German Health Ministry shows that the country will discard 54 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 and another 29 million doses in the first quarter of 2023.

The actual number, however, could be higher. The department did not provide waste figures for the second quarter of this year and also stressed that states and health care providers are not required to report vaccine waste.

“Therefore, it is not possible to quantify the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses purchased by the Federal Republic of Germany that have been discarded,” the German Health Ministry said in an email to Politico.

Meanwhile, 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines remain in stock as vaccination rates have fallen sharply. The most recent data from the EU’s disease control agency shows that a total of just 268 doses were administered in Germany in the week ending June 5, compared with 1,462 in the three weeks before that.

While vaccination rates are likely to increase in the fall as health systems prepare to deal with seasonal infections, that is unlikely to make up much of the 120 million unused doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Germany has a population of 83 million and has administered a total of 192 million shots during the pandemic.

The cost of this waste will almost certainly run into billions of euros.

Although the German Health Ministry did not provide details on the type of vaccine wasted, it revealed that of the 29 million vaccines that expired at the end of the first quarter of 2023, 5 million doses were from Moderna, 18 million were from BioNTech/Pfizer and 6 million were from Novavax.

Assuming the same calculation for expired doses at the end of 2022, as well as the 120 million doses in stock that have not been used, the total value of unused vaccines is around 4 billion euros based on leaked prices of 19 euros per dose for Novavax, 23 euros per dose for Moderna and 19.5 euros per dose for BioNTech/Pfizer.

EU countries, including Germany, are still struggling to secure more doses of COVID-19 vaccines following a recent deal negotiated between the European Commission and US pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The exact number of deliveries the bloc is expected to receive is not public, but a person who attended a confidential meeting where details of the revised contract were shared with a group of lawmakers told Politico that the figure was 260 million doses delivered over the next four years, or 65 million doses per year.

Faced with the risk of a COVID-19 vaccine surplus, in May, the EU and manufacturer Pfizer/BioNTech reached an agreement to amend the vaccine supply contract, reducing the number of vaccines and delaying delivery to 2026.

The agreement comes after months of negotiations and comes as the EU is under pressure from member states to amend the contract due to a surplus of COVID-19 vaccines and low demand for booster shots. Some EU countries have been forced to destroy expired batches of vaccines.

Under the initial contract signed in May 2021, Pfizer/BioNTech was to deliver 900 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the EU by the end of the year, with the option to deliver another 900 million doses later. However, more than 50% of the 900 million doses under the contract have not yet been delivered due to reduced demand last year. The EU has also not requested additional vaccine purchases as originally planned.

The two sides will reduce the undelivered doses by about 30% from the initial 900 million doses, a source familiar with the matter said, with EU member states paying a fee for each dose that is discarded.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper