I don't really know how to determine a fair price other than letting them compete with Moderna et al.
Traditional flu jabs apparently [0] cost the NHS £5-8 (<$11) per dose; the Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine seems in-line with that charging $2-5 non-profit for the duration of the pandemic [1]. But I don't know how comparable that is to Pfizer's given that the latter's different, newer (mRNA) tech AIUI? (Perhaps that's a disservice to the researchers at AZ/Oxford, I don't know.)
>At $3 to $4, many countries will jump on board ASAP and stay away from the expensive vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
The price difference will likely remain substantial, but in case anyone is unaware, the difference is currently greater due to AstraZeneca pledging to the sell the vaccine at cost "during the pandemic", while Pfizer and Moderna have indicated that they fully intend to profit. [1]
Once AstraZeneca deem the pandemic to be over, the price will likely rise.
It was reported a few months ago that internal AstraZeneca documents showed them projecting the "Pandemic Period" to end on 1 July 2021. [2]
That's not entirely fair. The other view: Oxford University pairs with a company with the global logistics and manufacturing capability to create billions of vaccine in record time. I much prefer the idea of a royalty-free vaccine open to all, but I also understand the more practical route of working with a company if it means faster delivery where time is of the essence.
The article posted here purposefully omits the cost price of the Oxford vaccine which is approximately £3 ($5). Even if AstraZeneca were to add a profit margin of a few dollars to the cost price (e.g. bring the cost to $10) that would still be cheaper than the vaccines from Biotech/Pfizer and Moderna.
Also, Oxford has always insited that they wanted to create a vaccine that would be as cheap as possible to manufacture so it would be affordable to treat people around the world.
No, the main driver for the price difference is that this is a "traditional" vaccine produced using existing technology, while Pfizer/Moderna are newfangled mRNA ones.
Also, all 3 have made various noises about not making a profit etc, it's quite hard to sort out the marketing from what will actually happen at this point. Oxford/Astra have committed to supplying at least 100M doses to low-income countries for under $3 though.
> Moderna said it would charge other governments from $32 to $37 per dose. The charge to the United States, which has already committed about $2.5 billion to help develop Moderna’s vaccine and buy doses, comes out to about $24.80 a shot
Yes, they're expecting to profit to some degree, but those charges don't look to be particularly out of line for a newer vaccine from a quick skim of price data.
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I can't see how any developed country would choose to pass on it at that cost if available to them while others are still under development/not available in sufficient supply.
The economic damage this is causing is massive and anything that gets you past this even slightly faster is more than worth that price.
You could vaccinate the whole UK population for $2.3bn (in medication costs). The pandemic is causing vastly more economic damage than that to the UK.
Through only August, COVID has cost just the UK government (to say nothing of other economic damage) over $277bn (@current exchange rates). The vaccine could cost half, it could cost 5x as much, but it would still be absurd to do anything other than pay it and get it out to as much of your population as you can if it's available to distribute and other vaccines aren't.
Even if you've got something else in the works, if buying what you can of this gets you "reopened/normal" a month or two earlier than not, it's still an obvious economic win for any developed country.
The prices for Astrazeneca vaccines are within the same range.
There are also efforts for some simple to produce vaccines underway, it's just not the ones you'll likely see used widely in industrialized countries. An example is the chinese Coronavac vaccine.
Though keep in mind making vaccines isn't just producing them, it's also running trials. It pretty much doesn't matter how cheap your production is, it will hardly affect the cost of the trial. And after all they're there so you actually know whether your vaccine works - and that part certainly shouldn't be skipped.
It's difficult. Do you trust J&J after what they did with their baby powder [1]? Or Pfizer [2], or Moderna who's vaccine is the most expensive and new to the scene [3]?
“ AstraZeneca, which has pledged it won’t make a profit on the vaccine during the pandemic, has reached agreements with governments and international health organizations that put its price at about $2.50 a dose. Pfizer’s vaccine costs about $20 a dose, while Moderna’s is $15 to $25, based on agreements the companies have struck to supply their vaccines to the U.S. government.”
And:
“ The vaccine can be transported under “normal refrigerated conditions” of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit), AstraZeneca said. By comparison, Pfizer plans to distribute its vaccine using specially designed “thermal shippers” that use dry ice to maintain temperatures of minus-70 degrees Celsius (minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit).”
the cost of these vaccines is largely hidden, no? Each country made deals behind closed doors AFAIK. I've seen some estimates of $12-$30 a shot, but have no idea the validity of this.
How much do the treatments cost? Is it vastly different?
I don't think we need to replace vaccines, but large swathes of the population still don't have access. It seems very likely that a multi-modal approach would allow us to treat more people, faster.
Not knowing anything about big pharma, does Astrazeneca make all the money here? How much does a vaccine like this cost per person given the scale of the distribution and manufacturing?
Vaccine manufacturers are making $20-25/dose in revenue, not profit.
The price for vaccines currently being charged is absurdly reasonable. I would pay 10x the price out of pocket without a second thought, and I wouldn't care how much of that is profit for the manufacturer.
I think the vaccines are a good idea if you are in the risk categories, and if you havn't already had COVID.
The problem is that these vaccines are being pushed on everybody, even those with natural immunity, and its becoming increasingly confrontational. The biggest winners seem to be Big Pharma, who are already forecasting huge sales and profit increases from their vaccines businesses.
It will be vaccine shots now, and booster shots a year later, forever, until the public opposition is sufficient.
Pandemrix, designed for the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, was found to have a 1 in 18,400 risk of Narcolepsy for children and adolescents:
These vaccine injuries are only found years later.
I'm a COVID survivor and it took a few months to recover and would prefer to have been vaccinated. But its not correct to force me to get the vaccination now, and incur the risk of vaccine injury, when the risk profile is so different due to my natural immunity.
It seems like natural immunity is being overlooked because if it was acknowledged, it means fewer vaccine sales.
You can say they are cheap compared, but affordable is what can actually be afforded. And for a country like India with a billion people, paying ~$1 per dose VS something like $15 for moderna is a huge difference.
All I'm saying is you should give more credit to companies doing the right thing and essentially giving the vaccine away at cost while there's a pandemic, even if their vaccine isn't quite as good.
Traditional flu jabs apparently [0] cost the NHS £5-8 (<$11) per dose; the Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine seems in-line with that charging $2-5 non-profit for the duration of the pandemic [1]. But I don't know how comparable that is to Pfizer's given that the latter's different, newer (mRNA) tech AIUI? (Perhaps that's a disservice to the researchers at AZ/Oxford, I don't know.)
[0] - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/17/nhs-attempts-sav...
[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/11/covid-19-vacci...
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