Coronavirus Pandemic
THE European Union (EU) on Friday reached its first agreement to purchase a potential vaccine against COVID-19 once it is proven to be safe and effective.
The European Commission made the announcement in a press release. The deal, made with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, would secure the purchase of at least 300 million doses on behalf of the EU member-states.
The products could also be donated to lower and middle-income countries or redirected to other European countries, the EU said in the press release.
The advance purchase agreement was reached after weeks of negotiations with AstraZeneca, according to Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
She said work was ongoing to bring more candidates into a broad EU vaccine portfolio.
The Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen described the agreement as the first cornerstone in implementing the Commission’s Vaccines Strategy, which would enable access to vaccines for Europeans and their partners in the world.
Friday’s announcement followed earlier ones that confirmed the conclusion of exploratory talks for vaccines supply with Sanofi-GSK on July 31 and with Johnson & Johnson on Aug. 13.
Kyriakides has earlier told a German newspaper, Handelsblatt, that the first vaccine against COVID-19 might be available toward the end of this year or early next year.
Kyriakides said the vaccine might not solve all the problems right away, but would gradually allow a return to normality “once a critical mass of citizens, especially among the risk groups have been vaccinated.” (Xinhua/NAN)
– Aug. 14, 2020 @ 15.42 GMT |
Tags: EU reaches first deal to buy potential COVID-19 vaccine
