French State Minister Links Reported Hike in Vaccine Prices to Higher Production Standards

PARIS (Sputnik) - French Minister of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune does not exclude the possibility that Pfizer and Moderna could have increased prices for their COVID-19 vaccines due to the introduction of higher production standards and adapting the vaccines to the new coronavirus variants.

"The negotiations [on new vaccine doses for the EU] are still going on, thus the information is confidential... Today nobody knows the final price for these vaccine shots, but it's likely that they will rise," Clement Beaune told the French CNews broadcaster.

Beaune noted that now the talks revolve around the supplies of the Europe-made vaccines that are adapted to the new COVID-19 variants.

"Therefore the current contracts are more demanding than the previous ones. We will not pay more for the same product; we will pay more for the product that is adapted to the new virus variants and abide by the higher European production standards," the minister added.

The demand for coronavirus vaccines will most likely be growing, after booster campaigns were recently launched in several countries and a quick spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant have been logged worldwide.

The Financial Times said Sunday, citing the supply contracts to the EU, that Pfizer and Moderna increased vaccine prices. The new price for a Pfizer vaccine dose grew from 15.5 euros [$18.2] to 19.5 euros, according to the news outlet, and the Moderna price rose from $22.6 to $25.5.