EU reaches first COVID-19 vaccine deal
The European Commission reached its first agreement to supply EU member states with an experimental COVID-19 vaccine with AstraZeneca late last week.
On Friday, August 14, the Commission announced that it would be purchasing 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine (if proven safe and effective), with an option to purchase 100 million more.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “The European Commission's intense negotiations continue to achieve results. Today’s agreement is the first cornerstone in implementing the European Commission's vaccines strategy.
“This strategy will enable us to provide future vaccines to Europeans, as well as our partners elsewhere in the world.”
According to the announcement, the doses could be donated to the EU member states nations, redirected to other European countries outside of the bloc or donated to lower and middle income countries.
“The decision to support the vaccine proposed by AstraZeneca is based on a sound scientific approach and the technology used (a non-replicative recombinant chimpanzee adenovirus-based vaccine ChAdOx1), speed at delivery at scale, cost, risk sharing, liability and the production capacity able to supply the whole of the EU, among others,” said the release.
The EU’s deal builds on an existing agreement with Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance, spearheaded by Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, said: “This first vaccine agreement with the European Commission will ensure that millions of Europeans have access to the AZD1222 vaccine following its approval.
“With production in our European supply chain soon to be started, we hope to make the vaccine available widely and rapidly, with the first doses to be delivered by the end of 2020.”
In the same announcement, the Commission added that it had concluded exploratory talks with Sanofi-GSK and with Johnson & Johnson.
Meanwhile, in the US, President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine programme has secured deals with a series of vaccine developers, including Sanofi and GSK.
The US government agreed to pay up to $2.1 billion to Sanofi and GSK for the development and delivery of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in early August. The two drugmakers have also agreed with the UK government to supply up to 60 million doses.
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