The European Commission today, i.e., Thursday, May 20, 2021 signed a third contract with the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech for procuring 1.8 billion doses of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine on behalf of the European Union (E.U.) Member States.
Of these, 900 million doses will be of the existing Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 900 doses will be of vaccine that will be adapted to work against COVID-19 variants. The contract also has an option of procuring additional 900 doses.
BioNTech is a German based pharmaceutical company which has collaborated with United States (U.S.) based Pfizer to develop a vaccine based on messenger RNA (mRNA).
Theses doses will be delivered between 2021 to 2023. As per the contract, the vaccines will be produced in Europe and all the components will be sourced from Europe. It also stipulates that, from the start of the supply in 2022, the delivery to the E.U. is guaranteed. The Member States getting the doses will be allowed to resell or donate doses to countries in need outside the E.U.
Speaking on the occasion, the President of the European Commission – Ursula von der Leyen said, “With our signature, the new contract is now in force, which is good news for our long-term fight to protect European citizens against the virus and its variants! Production and delivery in the EU of up to 1.8 billion doses are guaranteed. Potential contracts with other manufacturers will follow the same model, to the benefit of all.”
Taking it to twitter, Ursula tweeted,
Our new 🇪🇺 contract 2021-2023 with @BioNTech_Group @Pfizer is now signed.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 20, 2021
It guarantees up to 1.8 billion doses for our fight against COVID and its variants.
Contracts with other companies may follow, to protect Europe and the world in the long term.https://t.co/qhjktV17o5 pic.twitter.com/3cI1isHLjl
The European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety – Stella Kyriakides said, “We need to be one step ahead of the virus. This means having access to adapted vaccines to protect us against the threat of variants, booster vaccines to prolong immunity, as well as protecting our younger population. Our focus is a priority on technologies that have proven their worth, like mRNA vaccines, but we keep our options open.”
Sharing her thoughts on twitter, she tweeted,
✅ Third contract signed with BioNTech/Pfizer for up to 1.8 billion #COVID19 vaccine doses for 2022 and 2023.
— Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) May 20, 2021
We have secured booster vaccines, access to adapted vaccines for children and adolescents and against variants.
➡️ https://t.co/RNEFmT5OzB pic.twitter.com/S3U0C2xs7j
The Commission will also complement this contract with other contracts for vaccines based on other technologies. This contract is a part of European Strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and deployment of effective and safe vaccines against COVID-19. In return for the right to buy a specified number of vaccine doses in a given timeframe, the E.U. will finance parts of the upfront costs faced by vaccines producers in the form of Advance Purchase Agreements.
Apart from this, E.U. has signed contracts with AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutical NV, Curevac and Moderna for the vaccine. The European Commission has granted conditional marketing authorization for these vaccine developers.
