“Czech Republic Saves Billions by Canceling Excess COVID-19 Vaccine Orders”

Even so, the Czech Republic should save approximately two billion crowns this year alone, because it will not receive millions of benefits that it ordered in the past. “We will definitely want to make the most of it. Taking the entire amount makes no sense for us,” Deputy Minister of Health Jakub Dvořáček, who participated in the negotiation of the agreement, told Práv.

“I think that the Czech Republic currently has more vaccines ordered than it needs,” he added. Interest in vaccination against covid has been minimal for several months.

According to Dvořáček, expenses for vaccine storage will also be saved. At the same time, he denied that the amount of the cancellation fee is comparable to the amount that the Czech Republic had to pay for the supply of vaccines. “The cancellation fee is significantly less than the price of the vaccine would be,” he added.

Even representatives of the European Commission did not want to go into details. They refer to the classified regime of contracts. “I warmly welcome the agreement reached on behalf of Member States with BioNTech-Pfizer to adjust the supply of the covid-19 vaccine to meet evolving needs,” European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said late last week.

According to Deník N, the price of one dose should remain the same as before: 19.5 euros, i.e. about 497 crowns.

States can decide whether to withdraw all or waive some of the vaccine quantities ordered in 2020 and 2021. For this year alone, 450 million benefits were expected to arrive in the EU, the delivery of which was suspended for the duration of the negotiations. But they can still insist on delivering the full amount. This is in case the pandemic returns. The EU also directs part of the anti-coronavirus vaccines to developing countries. All member states participate in this and have thus provided more than 526 million benefits, mainly to Africa.

According to available information, the Czech Republic was supposed to take over this year approximately 11 million benefits for more than five billion crowns. After negotiating the amendment, almost two billion will be saved, as the Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek stated at the beginning of May (TOP 09).

The ministry did not want to say how many doses of the vaccine will eventually arrive in the Czech Republic. “For each year, a sufficient amount will be provided to cover the revaccination of risk groups, or of people interested in vaccination, which we expect to be roughly the same as those interested in vaccination against the flu,” the Ministry of Law told Prav. Around 700,000 inhabitants are vaccinated against the flu every year.

In the following years, the Czech Republic is to pay 1.5 billion for covid vaccines. Part of the Commission’s agreement with Pfizer is also a further extension of the period during which the states will receive vaccines, until 2027. The Czech Republic expects to spread its supplies until 2026.

Last year, manufacturers were forced to supply only the latest prototypes that respond to the latest spreading mutations of the virus. Even so, it can be expected that part of the vaccines will not be used and will have to be disposed of.

Since 2021, almost 10.9 million benefits for 4.7 billion have been liquidated. Despite this, the Czech Republic received 64,800 doses of the vaccine from the Sanofi company, which are practically unknown and which have not yet been used. They are not interested, although the ministry believes that they will be used for revaccination in the fall.

The situation from the last months shows a low interest. Over the past year, since the end of May last year, just over 996,000 doses have been given in the Czech Republic, the vast majority of them as a second revaccination last fall. Dozens, at most two hundred interested parties are vaccinated daily.

In the Czech Republic, 6.9 out of 10.8 million inhabitants have basic vaccinations. Two thirds of them were revaccinated once, only 800 thousand Czechs twice.