The European Commission announced the nation’s greatest vaccine supply agreement, promising to purchase up to 1.8 billion doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine over the next several years, as a controversy erupts over inequitable distribution of vaccines for the world’s most vulnerable people.
The vaccinations developed by the American pharmaceutical company and its German collaborator BioNTech will be supplied between 2021 and 2023, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a press conference.
The pact, which comes as the EU strives to strengthen long-term supply, would be enough to immunize the 450 million EU population for two years.
This is the bloc’s third deal with the two businesses, who have previously promised to provide 600 million units of the two-dose vaccination this year under two other contracts. By the end of the summer, Brussels hopes to have vaccinated at least 70 percent of EU adults.
“We will reach a conclusion in the coming days. During a visit to Pfizer’s vaccine production in Puurs, Belgium, von der Leyen stated, “It will secure the dosages required to deliver booster shots to improve protection.”
The decision comes as World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated vaccinations are still out of grasp for low-income nations in remarks honoring the one-year milestone of the COVAX facility dose sharing.
It is the latest step by Brussels to raise its chances on the businesses’ use of messenger RNA (mRNA) mechanism while sidelining those employing viral vector innovation used by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The Commission is considering cutting relations with AstraZeneca after the company cut its delivery goal owing to production issues. It threatened a lawsuit.
Vaccines from Astra and J&J have been related to an extremely uncommon but possibly catastrophic adverse event.
