EC approves contract with BioNTech-Pfizer alliance to ensure access to vaccine

The European Commission approved an agreement with pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer on Wednesday to purchase up to 300 million doses of the vaccine against the new coronavirus. The health commissioner made a reservation that no drug would end the pandemic in one day.

The US pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced on Monday that the Covid-19 vaccine project it is developing has over 90 percent. effectiveness. The company announced that it could produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the substance in 2021. The vaccine project is being developed in cooperation with the German biotechnology company BioNTech SE.

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said that the vaccine must still be authorized by the European Medicines Agency before it can enter the market. Clinical trials still conducted by pharmaceutical companies must end sooner.

Kiriakides did not want to talk about any potential schedule or date when a vaccine would be available. As she emphasized, it is important for citizens to get the message that even if the vaccine turns out to be effective and safe and becomes used, it will not make the pandemic disappear as if by magic. Therefore, the Commissioner explained, it will be necessary to maintain the measures currently in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“A safe and effective vaccine is the only lasting exit strategy from the pandemic and is at the center of our European Vaccine Strategy. Today's agreement follows the encouraging first indications from the clinical trial results and is further evidence of our commitment to putting more Europe in the area of health,” she stressed.

Initial talks with BioNTech-Pfizer on the purchase of a potential Covid-19 vaccine were completed by the Commission on September 9. The agreement with the consortium is intended to ensure that all EU Member States can purchase the vaccine, as well as donate it to low and middle-income countries or redistribute it in other European countries.

It is envisaged that, once research proves that the vaccine is safe and effective against Covid-19, the Commission will have the option to purchase 200 million doses initially (and an option to purchase another 100 million doses) on behalf of all EU Member States.

(PAP)