EU Cuts Vaccine Deal With Pfizer, Other European Firms

The European Commission has contracted Pfizer and several European companies to reserve the capacity to make up to 325 million vaccines per year in case of a future global health emergency, it said, Maggie Fick and Jennifer Rigby reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The deal ensures that companies are ready "to respond to a crisis" by keeping their facilities up to date and monitoring their supply chains, "including stockpiling where necessary."

The agreement covers mRNA, vector-based and protein-based vaccines and does not relate to existing COVID-19 vaccine agreements between the EU and vaccine makers including Pfizer.

The European Commission said in a statement announcing the deal that the COVID pandemic showed that Europe needs to be better prepared for future health emergencies.

The deal ensures that companies are ready "to respond to a crisis" by keeping their facilities up to date and monitoring their supply chains, "including stockpiling where necessary", the Commission said.

If a new public health emergency is declared, companies would "rapidly start production," it said.

But vaccine equity activists said the EU risked a repeat of what the World Health Organization (WHO) dubbed "vaccine apartheid" during COVID-19. EU has selected Pfizer's plants in Ireland and Belgium to reserve the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines.

It chose Spanish firms Reig Jofre and Laboratorios Hipra SA to reserve capacity for protein-based vaccines and Bilthoven Biologicals B.V. of the Netherlands for vector-based vaccines.

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