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* EU to easily meet vaccination targets, 1.5 bln doses by
year-end
* Doses coming from four drugmakers, not Sanofi, CureVac
-document
* EU leaders back goal of donating at least 100 mln doses in
2021
* WHO's Tedros asks for much more
(Adds von der Leyen quotes)
By Sabine Siebold and Francesco Guarascio
BRUSSELS, May 25 (Reuters) - The European Union expects to
have received more than a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by
the end of September from four drugmakers, according to a
document presented to EU leaders on Tuesday.
The document, seen by Reuters and prepared by the European
Commission, shows the EU is confident of having enough vaccines
to immunise its entire eligible population by that date, well
beyond the initial goal of inoculating 70% of the adult
population by the end of the summer.
"We are on track to reach our goal," the head of the
European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told a news
conference after the meeting with EU leaders. "If we continue
like this, we have confidence that we will be able to safely
reopen our societies."
The EU expects to get 413 million doses in the second
quarter, and another 529 million in the third, according to the
EU document. It received 106 million in the first quarter.
By the end of the year, the EU forecasts it will receive
another 452 million doses, for a total of 1.5 billion.
The estimates take into account only vaccines from
Pfizer/BionTech , Johnson & Johnson,
AstraZeneca and Moderna.
They exclude doses from German biotech CureVac and
French drugmaker Sanofi, which have signed contracts
with the EU for hundreds of millions of doses but are struggling
to develop their vaccines and get them approved by EU
regulators.
The numbers are in line with public commitments and previous
announcements, but also include previously unknown targets for
the second half of the year.
The EU has also said it plans to share at least 100 million
doses this year with poorer nations outside the bloc
.
EU leaders meeting on Tuesday confirmed that commitment in a
joint document, but did not make it more ambitious. Some
vaccines could also be used for a third booster shot or against
variants.
World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the EU for its commitment, but
added: "We need hundreds of millions more doses."
He has also urged rich nations to reconsider plans to
vaccinate teenagers because those vaccines would be more useful
in poorer nations.
Despite Tedros' call, von der Leyen said on Tuesday she
hoped the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be quickly approved by
the EU drugs regulator for teenagers between 12 and 15, noting
that a decision was expected towards the end of the month.
The COVAX programme for distributing vaccines around the
world, backed by the WHO and the Global Alliance for Vaccines
and Immunization (GAVI), has so far shipped only about 70
million vaccine doses of the 2 billion planned for this year, as
wealthy nations have reserved most of those available.
LION'S SHARE
Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine accounts for more than half
the supplies in the second quarter of this year and for nearly
40% of total deliveries in the third quarter.
The document shows that the two companies will deliver 200
million doses in the July-September period, nearly completing
their contracted commitment to supply 600 million.
The two drugmakers are expected to deliver roughly 200
million doses more in the fourth quarter, the bulk of which
would come from a third contract for up to 1.8 billion doses
signed in May, which runs until 2023.
A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on the numbers cited
in the EU document.
Deliveries in the second half of the year also include
several million from AstraZeneca, even though it had been
required to deliver all its 300 million contracted doses by the
end of June.
The company said in March it could hope to deliver only 100
million doses to the EU by the end of June due to production
problems and export restrictions.
The EU document is based on the company's estimates rather
than on the EU request to deliver 120 million doses by the end
of the second quarter.
That request was made by EU lawyers in a Brussels court this
month. A ruling is expected next month.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Francesco Guarascio
@fraguarascio in Brussels; additional reporting by Stephanie
Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by John Chalmers, Barbara Lewis
and Nick Macfie)
