Nov. 12, 2020
A press release by the European Commission revealed that the Commission approved a fourth contract with pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer, which provides for the initial purchase of 200 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States, plus an option to request up to a further 100 million doses, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19. Member States can decide to donate the vaccine to lower and middle-income countries or to re-direct it to other European countries.
This is an extract from the statement:
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “In the wake of Monday's promising announcement by BioNTech and Pfizer on the prospects for their vaccine, I'm very happy to announce today's agreement with the European company BioNTech and Pfizer to purchase 300 million doses of the vaccine. With this fourth contract we are now consolidating an extremely solid vaccine candidate portfolio, most of them in advanced trials phase. Once authorised, they will be quickly deployed and bring us closer to a sustainable solution of the pandemic.”
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “A safe and effective vaccine is the only lasting exit strategy from the pandemic, and is at the centre of our European Vaccine Strategy. Today's agreement follows the encouraging first indications from the clinical trial results and is further evidence of our commitment to putting more Europe in the area of health. It is a very telling example of what the EU can achieve when working together, as a Union, and a case in point of what a future European Health Union will be able to deliver.”
In full: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2081
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