(Adds details)
PUURS, Belgium, April 23 (Reuters) - The European Union has
sealed the world's biggest vaccine supply deal, agreeing to buy
up to 1.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by
Pfizer-BioNTech , an EU official told Reuters
on Friday.
The official did not give a timeline for delivery, but the
European Commission has started talks recently to source
vaccines for 2022 and 2023 to shore up long-term supplies.
The agreement would be enough to inoculate the 450 million
EU population for the next two years.
This is the third contract agreed by the bloc with the two
companies, which have already agreed to deliver 600 million
doses of the two-shot vaccine this year under two previous
contracts.
The deal is likely to stir the debate over inequitable
access to shots for the world's poorest people.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio;
Writing by Josephine Mason;
Editing by Marine Strauss and Louise Heavens)