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BRUSSELS, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The European Union will buy an
extra 100 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s
COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total from the two
firms to 300 million doses, European Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
"We decided to take an additional 100 million doses of the
BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which is already being used to
vaccinate people across the EU," she said on Twitter.
"We will therefore have 300 million doses of this vaccine,
which was assessed as safe and effective," von der Leyen added.
The plan comes after some of the vaccine candidates ordered
by the EU faced unexpected delays in clinical trials, forcing
the bloc and other wealthy nations to rely on shots from fewer
manufacturers than initially planned.
The Pfizer/BioNTech shot, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be
approved by Western drugs regulators, is being rolled out in
countries including Britain and the United States.
Under the EU contract, the two firms have committed to
rapidly deliver 200 million doses after regulatory approval for
15.5 euros ($18.8) apiece, EU officials told Reuters in
November.
The extra 100 million doses would be supplied at the same
price, but with the timetable to be negotiated, EU officials
said.
With a population of 450 million, the bloc is now relying on
the 200 million Pfizer shots it has already ordered for its
first vaccinations.
In January, the EU is also expected to approve the shot
developed by Moderna. It has an initial order of 80 million
doses, with an option for 80 million more that will be
exercised.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses per
person. In total, the EU has booked nearly 1.3 billion vaccines
in deals with Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson,
AstraZeneca/Oxford, Sanofi/GSK and CureVac, and has options to
buy another 660 million.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Jan Strupczewski
in Brussels, Editing by Gareth Jones and Ed Osmond)
