BRUSSELS: The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with a sixth pharmaceutical company, this time BioNTech-Pfizer, to reserve another two hundred million doses of a possible COVID-19 vaccine as laboratories around the world struggled to produce a vaccine. vaccine for infection.
“Our chances of developing and deploying an effective vaccine have never been greater, neither for Europeans here at home nor for the rest of the world,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“To beat the coronavirus anywhere, we have to beat it everywhere. “
Brussels has signed agreements with Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Curevac, Moderna and AstraZeneca to be able to temporarily acquire doses if any of the corporations develops an effective vaccine against the coronavirus.
“We are confident that among those applicants there will be an effective vaccine against Covid-19 to help us defeat this pandemic,” said EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
In a statement, BioNTech said the deal includes an option for another 100 million doses.
Deliveries can begin by the end of 2020, if laboratories effectively pass the verification phases.
“We have activated our chain of origin, especially our site in Belgium, and we are beginning to manufacture so that our vaccine will be available as temporarily as possible, if our clinical trials are successful and regulatory approval is granted,” said Albert Bouria. , President and CEO of Pfizer.
More than two hundred candidate vaccines are being developed recently, of which about two dozen are in clinical trials with human volunteers.
Countries have also struggled to have enough doses, and the world’s richest countries place billions of pre-orders in deliveries before vaccines finish testing.
Amid considerations that U. S. President Donald Trump will pressure regulators to pass a vaccine before the November presidential election, the CEOs of nine corporations, adding BioNTech and Pfizer, committed this week to “the integrity of the clinical procedure. “
Specifically, corporations stated that they would seek emergency approvals for vaccines “after demonstrating protection and efficacy through a Phase 3 clinical examination designed and conducted to meet the needs of a specialized regulatory government such as the FDA,” the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. But it’s not the first time