On Friday, Austria’s largest corona vaccination line opened its doors for the last time in the Austria Center Vienna, the daily vaccination numbers against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are now mostly in the three-digit range; last Wednesday, for example, there were 580 nationwide. What remains are millions of different vaccines against the virus, specifically 20.9 million according to information from the Ministry of Health, 4.4 million of which have already expired.
Eleven million doses are yet to come
According to the Berlin Ministry of Health, supplies in neighboring Germany amounted to a good 116 million doses of corona vaccine (as of the end of February 2023). Here, however, the delivery of almost 111 million more cans with a value of around 2.5 billion euros was still pending, in Austria there are 11.7 million cans that are still to come.
Expired vaccines are disposed of, but with the restriction “unless the EMA approves a further extension of the shelf life,” said the ministry, which confirmed the domestic figures of a report by orf.at. According to this, a further 6.8 million vaccine doses will have reached their best-before date in the months from April to June 2023.
Nine million vaccines donated
So that vaccines can be used elsewhere instead of expiring, Austria also donated 9.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to third countries, five million of them in 2022 (as of January 2023) – most of the vaccines went to the international initiative “COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access” (COVAX) of the United Nations.
A little over two weeks ago, Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) expressed dissatisfaction with the negotiations on a contract change with the manufacturers of the corona vaccines in Brussels. The EU Commission should act harder here; Austria, together with the other EU member states, wants to achieve a reduction in delivery quantities and costs and spread the deliveries over several years. However, it was agreed not to disclose the details of the negotiations, the ministry said.
Rauch sees “success story”
Rauch called the corona vaccination “a success story” on Friday. The development and production of the vaccines within a year was only possible through the close cooperation of the international community and the manufacturers. “This has saved the lives of millions of people worldwide,” emphasized the Minister of Health.
The EU has spent billions on vaccines since the pandemic began, “and that was good and right.” Three years ago, no one could seriously estimate the duration of the pandemic, the number of vaccinations required and the demand for vaccinations, said Rauch. But now the immunity of the population is high and demand is falling.
“The manufacturers have benefited massively from the public investments. Now it’s time to adapt the contracts to the new situation,” Rauch warned. The pharmaceutical industry made billions with the vaccine. Vaccine maker BioNTech alone reported net profits of more than €17 billion in 2021 and the first three quarters of 2022.
