EU could lose more than $2 billion due to expired COVID-19 drugs

European countries could lose up to $2.2 billion by February 2024 due to the expiration date of coronavirus drugs.

According to her, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Italy have already lost about $1.1 billion due to the expired shelf life of Paxlovid vaccines from the American company Pfizer. By February, the number of expired drugs will reach 3.1 million courses. This phenomenon is associated with strict control over access to medicines for the population and a reassessment of market needs, the Financial Times newspaper reports.

"Governments were interested in purchasing a highly effective antiviral drug, and they faced a difficult task to assess demand taking into account many unknown factors," explained the reason for the oversupply of the drug, Airfinity analyst Marco Galloto.

Pfizer also called the mass elimination of expired vaccines "an inevitable consequence of the pandemic, a natural result of manufacturers and governments working together to overcome the public health crisis as quickly as possible in order to protect their populations."

On December 18, the Politico newspaper reported that EU countries destroyed at least 215 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines worth €4 billion due to their uselessness.