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Analysis: Unused COVID Vaccines are Worth Over $2 Billion

Analysis: Unused COVID Vaccines are Worth Over $2 Billion

Meanwhile, Pfizer and Moderna say work on Covid vaccines is not over, even though the public health emergency has ended.

A recent review of the data that has followed the official end to the global health emergency of the Covid pandemic shows that more than $2 billion has been wasted on unused Covid vaccines.

More than 300 million doses of four brands of vaccine – Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and Novavax – have been discarded or donated to other countries.

There are multiple reasons for the wastage, including vaccine hesitancy and overspending by the US Government.

Yet despite the figures and dwindling demand, the World Health Organization has called for new Covid shots to be developed for this winter that target mutated variants.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 596 million Pfizer Covid vaccines have been delivered to states up to May 11. That includes both the original Pfizer vaccine and the updated Omicron booster.

But only 404 million have actually been administered, leaving 192 million unaccounted for.

And 355 million Moderna vaccines were delivered, including the updated booster, but only 253 million were put into arms, leaving 102 million unused.

With federal purchases of Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines costing an average of $20.69 per dose, according to analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, this equates to $2 billion.

The falling demand for vaccines across Western nations, the US, and Europe are becoming a major concern for vaccine makers sitting over a large inventory of unused Covid vaccines.

“We had to invest billions . . . to deliver a vaccine that helped to stem the tide of a global pandemic that was killing millions of people,” Jacobs told Financial Times.

All of a sudden situation has come to a point where all of a sudden government is saying, “Now we don’t think we need it as much. Sorry, you’re out of luck,’ reported FT quoting John Jacobs.

Other vaccine makers are also suffering to survive in the COVID vaccine market as BioNTech/Pfizer plans to supply as many as 70 million doses a year until 2026, leaving lesser opportunities for Novavax, Moderna, and Sanofi.

Novavax, like its counterparts, BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, has the license to supply Covid jabs in the US EU, and other western countries. The slump in demand has posed a major challenge for all the COVID vaccine makers as they are facing steep falls in sales.

Still, Big Pharma persists.

Three years and billions of Covid vaccinations into the pandemic, Pfizer and Moderna

say their work is far from over.

The two pharmaceutical companies, whose Covid vaccines have become household names, are ushering in a new era for their shots that will elevate the role they play in protecting public health, but also simplify what people need to do to coexist with the virus.

That involves developing new versions of the vaccines that aim to provide broader and longer-lasting immunity against the virus, and combination jabs that protect against Covid and other respiratory diseases in a single dose, among other efforts.

Those plans coincide with a broader shift in the Covid pandemic landscape.

The U.S. and global-level public health emergencies are over, vaccine uptake and sales growth have slowed, and both Pfizer and Moderna will sell their shots directly to health-care providers at around $110 to $130 per dose as soon as the fall, when the federal stockpile of free vaccines is expected to run out.

I wish the pharma companies a ton of good luck getting $100 for a shot they can’t seem to give away for free.

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Comments

nordic prince | May 23, 2023 at 7:33 am

“$2 billion” worth of crap.

Fat_Freddys_Cat | May 23, 2023 at 7:40 am

“We had to invest billions . . . to deliver a vaccine that helped to stem the tide of a global pandemic that was killing millions of people,” Jacobs told Financial Times.

You made billions with your worthless slop, you peckerhead. The unused inventory is not “worth” anything at all.

I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones who developed multiple clots less than a week after my second shot. Which lead to a stroke and several stents so that my legs could receive blood again after my iliac crest arteries were blocked.
Fun times after being lied to.

    MattMusson in reply to Aion. | May 23, 2023 at 7:53 am

    I had vaccine induced arthritis, fever and chills and started shedding quarter sized patches of skin from my legs to my scalp.

    Good times.

    gonzotx in reply to Aion. | May 23, 2023 at 8:56 am

    Are you ok now?

    2nd Ammendment Mother in reply to Aion. | May 23, 2023 at 2:12 pm

    My Dad wasn’t so lucky. His physician insisted he get the vaccine when it came out because of his COPD. His quality of life declined almost immediately and he died 28 days later of heart failure. He had no prior history of cardiac issues. I can’t prove it, but it tracks with what we now know.

The Gentle Grizzly | May 23, 2023 at 7:43 am

It’s not “worth” 2 billion. It is VALUED at that amount so when they write it off it’s a bigger tax deduction.

    E Howard Hunt in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | May 23, 2023 at 10:12 am

    You are no tax expert. Lol

      henrybowman in reply to E Howard Hunt. | May 23, 2023 at 2:35 pm

      Grizz has it right.
      Check out Bill Clinton’s used underwear.

        Joe-dallas in reply to henrybowman. | May 23, 2023 at 4:07 pm

        Henry & Grizzly –
        The vaccines are inventory, so the tax deductible write off is limited to actual cost, not fair market value (though the FMV is close to zero as noted by others above).

        The inventory carrying cost is likely very low since most drugs, the majority of the costs are associated with development which is expensed as incurred, thus the w/o is likely very low.

    dunce1239 in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | May 23, 2023 at 4:48 pm

    Cost and value are not synonyms.

How much have they already been paid? 2B is a big number, but it lacks context.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/31/the-covid-pandemic-drives-pfizers-2022-revenue-to-a-record-100-billion.html

Lucifer Morningstar | May 23, 2023 at 8:23 am

$2 Billion? $2 BILLION. We’re griping about $2 billion wasted dollars on worthless, unused vaccines when the United States has wasted $200 BILLION plus dollars (and counting) on a proxy war with Russia that the clown Zelenskyy is bound and determined to lose in the end? Whatever. Just pocket change for government.

    It’s not pocket for the taxpayers!

      Lucifer Morningstar in reply to bill54. | May 23, 2023 at 10:11 am

      • $32 TRILLION in federal debt (with no end in sight)
      • $200 BILLION+ (and counting) wasted on that clown & fraud Zelenskyy
      • Trillions wasted over the years in pointless welfare programs
      • The military accidentally “misestimates” by $3 BILLION the amount they’ve given Ukraine for free so they will give them more (Huzzah! to Zelenskyy)

      Should I continue?

      In any case, tell me how the federal government cares in the least about the taxpayer? The taxpayer is just nothing more than a convenient source of money for the lunatic spending policies of the federal government.

      So what I said still applies. We’re griping about $2 billion wasted when the federal government wastes that on a daily basis. And more to boot. It’s all just pocket money to them. They don’t have to go out and earn it. They just take it and that’s it. Disgusting but true.

        Next time Zelensky asks for money, send him the vaccine, Tell him to use it for barter or dip the tips of their bullets in it and use it to shoot Russians—but that would probably be against the Geneva Conventions.

        Lucifer Morningstar in reply to Lucifer Morningstar. | May 23, 2023 at 1:19 pm

        Once again gotta love the drive by down voters. Two this time that down voted me without a comment. Guess they just can’t stand the fact I’m right. That in relation to what the federal government wastes on a daily basis makes $2 Billions just chump change not worth bothering about. The federal government can always get more. It’s what they do best.

          henrybowman in reply to Lucifer Morningstar. | May 23, 2023 at 2:38 pm

          I suspect we’re just appalled at the implication that as long as we waste vastly huge amounts of money, we shouldn’t complain about wasting merely huge amounts.

          If by ‘get more’ you mean print it out of thin air, eventually driving our entire economy into a death spiral, sure.

          GravityOpera in reply to Lucifer Morningstar. | May 24, 2023 at 4:49 pm

          It was obvious enough that nothing should need to be said, but I’ll do so anyway.

          You’re foaming at the mouth over something unrelated and spouting silliness about that thing. Maybe it was your piano he used in his comedy skit? If you actually cared about the money you’d be complaining about Social Security which is $1,200 billion A YEAR with an intrinsically negative ROI.

          BTW Putin requires COVID jabs and the Russian military is in such bad shape they just got bigly embarrassed by Russian rebels capturing several towns including Belgorod.

Yeah, had to let the pathogen in the vaccine mature before donating it to third-world countries where it kills of 45 million unknowing recipients.

E Howard Hunt | May 23, 2023 at 10:14 am

It is more accurate to say that the amount spent on the vaccines, used and unused, was wasted.

The deadly jab is Death’s pen to reset the world by eviscerating millions

henrybowman | May 23, 2023 at 2:58 pm

Today’s installment:

Meet Michelle M. Mello — A Public Health Policy Professor at Stanford University… known for her advocacy for vaccines… Despite having no medical training, she holds a joint appointment at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Medicine… Michelle also moonlights as an opinion writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Her husband had a stroke immediately after COVID mRNA vaccination and was diagnosed with a super rare autoimmune condition that completely fits the risk profile and mechanisms of harm of the COVID mRNA vaccines. And the conclusion Michelle, the vaccine proponent and Stanford health researcher, arrives at is that it wasn’t the vaccine.

Despite her husband’s brain injuries, she continued to booster him, and also vaccinated all her children. She remains “thankful for the vaccines’ protections.”

    txvet2 in reply to henrybowman. | May 23, 2023 at 4:17 pm

    “”Despite her husband’s brain injuries, she continued to booster him, and also vaccinated all her children. She remains “thankful for the vaccines’ protections.” “”

    It’s kind of like taking herbal supplements for prostatitis. They probably don’t work, but you keep taking them because maybe they have been and things will get worse if you stop.

      henrybowman in reply to txvet2. | May 23, 2023 at 5:12 pm

      Gun control in a nutshell.
      “We need to make our schools completely gun-free even harder.”