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On 11 November, the European Commission approved a fourth contract with a pharmaceutical company, BioNTech – Pfizer.
The contract provides for the initial purchase of 200 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States. Plus an option to purchase up to a further 100 million doses once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19.
Last 9 November, Pfizer and BioNtech announced their candidate vaccines against COVID-19 achieved success in first interim analysis from Phase III study.
Also with this contract Member States can decide to donate the vaccine to lower and middle-income countries or to re-direct it to other European countries.
The vaccine was the first to be authorised by EMA and national Agencies. UK started the distribution already in December 2020. It is currently distributed in EU, USA, UK and many other countries.
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- On 8 January 2021, the European Commission proposed to the EU Member States to purchase an additional 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer, with the option to acquire another 100 million doses. This would enable the EU to purchase up to 600 million doses of this vaccine, which is already being used across the EU. The additional doses will be delivered starting in the second quarter of 2021.
- On 6 January 2021, the EU Medicine Agency EMA has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to prevent Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in people from 18 years of age.
EU Commission has also signed other contracts with AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sanofi-GSK, CureVac and Johnson & Johnson.
A very interesting graph that encapsulates the chronological steps towards the vaccine authorisations and rollout. The Astra/Zeneca vaccine should be reviewed before the end of January by the EMA and the Russian Sputnik vaccine potentially in February leaving some hope for further vaccine deployment in the course of time