Once the emergency of the Covid pandemic has passed, which left many consequences with respect to the EU-directed centralized purchasing policies of millions of doses of vaccines – often left in warehouses – Italy’s procurement strategy seems to have changed.
No to the EU contract for the purchase of the preventive vaccine
While new infectious diseases loom on the horizon, such as avian flu and dengue, just to give two examples, a first sign of a possible turning point is that our country is not among those who have decided, through Hera – the EU Authority for the preparation and response to health emergencies (Hera) of the Commission – to enter into the joint procurement framework contract for the supply of up to 665 thousand doses of Seqirus pre-pandemic vaccine, with the option for a further 40 million doses for all 4 years covered by the contract. An initiative aimed at having medical countermeasures to prevent avian influenza (the vaccine in question protects against that caused by the H5 strains of the influenza A virus).
The reasons for the choice
15 EU member states have said yes. Why not Italy? A first hypothesis is that we will go and buy the vaccines when needed, but above all the paradigm shift on this front is the desire to go and negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies, without intermediate steps. Objective: minimize waste. Seqirus is the only preventive vaccine against zoonotic avian influenza authorized in the EU today. However, Italy is not exposed, neither on the avian nor on the dengue front. As regards specifically avian flu, for example, the previous Government, with another Prevention directorate of the Ministry of Health, had opted for GSK’s pre-pandemic vaccine against the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
Lopalco: “Short-sighted ideological choice”
Italy’s “a short-sighted” and “ideological” choice. This is the opinion of Pier Luigi Lopalco, professor of Epidemiology at the University of Salento.
“Italy makes this choice – explains the epidemiologist to Adnkronos Salute – once again outside the international forum for preparing for pandemic events. It is a choice that isolates Italian public health.”
