The European Union wants to obtain approval from the authorities of the Member States to start talks with Pfizer and BioNTech, which are to purchase up to 1.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by these companies, the Reuters agency said, citing an EU official. These preparations are to be delivered to the EU in 2022 and 2023.
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Earlier on Friday, the German daily “Die Welt” announced that the European Commission is to sign contracts for the purchase of up to 1.8 billion doses soon, but did not say with which company.
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An EU official who asked not to disclose his name on grounds of confidentiality said the EU executive had already decided to approach Pfizer-BioNTech and that EU governments backed the plan, although final approval is not yet pending.
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Vaccinations in FrancePAP / EPA / GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
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A Pfizer spokesman said companies are ready to deliver hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine to the European Union in 2022 and 2023. They are to be manufactured in the factories of enterprises in Europe.
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Vaccinations in the European Union
The European Commission argues that it is able to achieve the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the adult population in the Community by summer. – If the expected number of vaccine from the second quarter – 360 million doses – is added to the first quarter deliveries, which amounted to about 107 million doses – then (…) we will have enough doses to achieve our goal – the EC said in recent days.
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According to statistics published last week by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the EU failed to meet its target by the end of March of immunizing 80 percent of health workers and 80 percent of those over 80 years of age.
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In addition, the EC is concerned about new variants of the coronavirus. Therefore, at the end of March, it simplified the approval procedures for vaccines adapted to the new variants. Thanks to a smaller set of required data, the process of approving preparations by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to be faster. According to Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, the EU must be prepared to adapt vaccines as soon as possible and to respond to new and potentially vaccine-resistant variants.
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Vaccines against COVID-19PAP / Maciej Zieliński
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The amendment to the regulations will allow for faster changes to the marketing authorization. Therefore, it applies only to those vaccines that have already obtained such authorization, and their producers only modify their composition.
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The European Medicines Agency issues opinions on the authorization of the vaccine on the market, and final approval rests with the European Commission.
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photo-source">Main photo source: PAP / EPA / GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
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