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EU SEALS DEAL FOR 1.8B MORE PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE DOSES
- By The Financial District
- May 10, 2021
- 1 min read
The European Commission has struck a deal with COVID-19 vaccine producer Pfizer/BioNTech to buy up to 1.8 billion additional doses for the next few years, President Ursula von der Leyen announced.
"Happy to announce that (the European Commission) has just approved a contract for guaranteed 900 million doses," von der Leyen tweeted. The deal, covering 2021-23, also allows EU states to buy a further 900 million doses, according to the top EU official.
"Other contracts and other vaccine technologies will follow," she wrote, Ella Joyner reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
The EU is preparing for its future needs for booster shots, dealing with "possible escape variants" and for the vaccination of children and adolescents, von der Leyen said.
Some 700 million doses will be needed as boosters and to vaccinate children and young people in 2022 and 2023, under the European Commission's calculations.
However, if a new variant emerges that the vaccine cannot address, 640 million doses will be needed to protect 70 percent of the EU population.
The finished deal with the joint German-US pharmaceutical venture is worth up to 35 billion euros (43 billion dollars) and will lead to further investment in Germany and Belgium, dpa understands.
The commission remains tight-lipped about the prices it pays its various suppliers per dose, but Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said earlier this month that the cost of each shot in the new deal was around 19.50 euros, higher than in previous contracts. EU sources confirmed that the cost of each dose was under 20 euros. Two shots are needed for vaccination.
