The Commission staff who signed these contracts are clearly idiots. Why do you assume they aren't paying 10x what the natural market rate would have been? Pfizer realized the EU would sign literally anything to be able to say it was going to save the day by purchasing vaccines. That's the absolute perfect time to set prices well above what you normally could charge!

You're welcome to bring numbers rather than hand-waving to this argument.

Seems like a problem with Pfizer exploiting its monopoly position to hold public health hostage as much as bureaucrats choosing to have a signed contract with an overly-generous safety margin over getting the best possible price over some unknown timeframe.

Pfizer didn't have a monopoly!

They had a combination of pharmaceutical expertise and manufacturing capacity that made it easier for them to play hardball than it was for Moderna or Janssen. Substitute 'market power' for monopoly if you prefer, my point is that they were pursuing their own economic interests while negotiating deals so they share responsibility with the public officials for the outcome.