Photographer: Alex Kraus / Bloomberg
Photographer: Alex Kraus / Bloomberg
The The European Union received an additional 300 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE as countries across the region struggle to push back the winter rise of new diseases.
The news by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doubles the total vaccine doses available from the two companies for the 27 member states of the bloc to 600 million. There was a compromise has started less than a week after the EU encouraged a choice for more vaccines under an initial agreement, people familiar with the talks said earlier in the week.
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“I am particularly pleased that 75 million of this order will already be available from quarter two onwards,” Von der Leyen told reporters on Friday in Brussels. “The rest will then be delivered in the third and third quarter. in the fourth quarter. “
European governments have resisted criticism of the slow release of vaccine programs. The EU has signed contracts with a range of companies to reach up to 2.3 billion doses, although only Pfizer-BioNTech bullets and vaccines from Moderna Inc. has received permission from the European regulator.
Like the previous agreement, the new contract has two parts. The EU placed a strong order for 200 million doses, with the option to request an additional 100 million views, BioNTech said in a statement. The full 600 million doses available would be enough to vaccinate two-thirds of the European population with a double-dose regimen.
BioNTech and Pfizer are looking for ways to boost production beyond the 1.3 billion doses originally planned for this year, German biotech chief executive Ugur Sahin said in an interview last month that went. The Chief Executive said that he was confident that this would be possible, although the participants have not yet announced how.
Exploration of the vaccine is increasingly under scrutiny as European health authorities oppose a new version of the virus spreading more quickly in the UK that the Pfizer-BioNTech image could protect against the new variant, showed early data from laboratory tests published Friday.
(Updates with details throughout)