European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday announced a new contract with US pharmaceutical giant Moderna to provide additional vaccine doses.
The European Union has faced criticism for its vaccine purchasing strategy, amid concerns that vaccine distribution has been relatively slow.
The contract for the Moderna vaccine – agreed in January – is the second that the EU has hit with the manufacturer and which provides for an additional purchase of 150 million in 2021.
There is then an option to buy an additional 150 million in 2022 on behalf of the 27 EU member states.
The EU-based task force in Brussels unveiled plans to better detect versions of the virus and ramp up a potentially modified vaccine agreement.
Earlier hours on Wednesday, US drug company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said they had finalized a contract to deliver a further 200 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the European Union.
The companies said these doses – which are expected to be delivered this year, are about 75 million of them in the second quarter – in addition to the 300 million already ordered.
Will the EU have enough vaccines for everyone?
EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said Moderna’s latest purchase received the block’s vaccine package of up to $ 2.6 billion – more than enough for its own population.
“With a package of up to 2.6 billion doses, we will be able to provide vaccines not only to our citizens, but also to our neighbors and partners,” von der Leyen said.
The agreement allows us to give the jobs to lower-income and middle-income countries, if the EU has sufficient supply.
To date, about 22 million people have been vaccinated in the block since the first job was given in late December – said von der Leyen who was too slow.
“We need and accelerate vaccination in the coming weeks and months,” von der Leyen said at a news conference.
Earlier this month, the European Commission identified manufacturing capacity as a “limiting factor”. “They said it would set up a specialist group to respond and” deliver a more structured approach to pandemic preparedness. ”
Vaccination deception is a growing problem
The head of the commission also said they were taking action to bring to justice the growing cases of COVID-19 vaccine fraud, and to bring individuals responsible for it to justice.
“In a crisis like this there are always people who try to profit from the problems of others,” Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference. “And we are seeing a growing number of attempts at fraud and fraud related to the vaccines.”
“We are fighting this move,” she added, adding that OLAF’s anti-fraud group was investigating and advising EU member states on monitoring. foill.
Von der Leyen said there was no way to tell if black market-offered vaccines were stored at a constant cold temperature.
On Monday, OLAF said it had been alerted to reports of scammers offering to sell vaccines, seeking fraud by EU governments aimed at speeding up vaccination efforts.
The EU bought vaccine doses together. However, member states can decide to negotiate individual treaties as long as they do not compete with the EU’s advanced purchase.
rc / msh (AP, Reuters, AFP)