EU to buy 300M more COVID-19 vaccine doses from Moderna

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The European Commission has approved a new contract with US-based biotechnology firm Moderna to buy 300 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses, the head of the commission announced on Wednesday.

“The Commission has approved a second contract with Moderna to purchase 300 million additional doses of their vaccine against COVID-19, this is good news”, Ursula von der Leyen told journalists.

Under the new deal, the bloc will be able to buy 150 million extra doses in 2021 and as many shots in 2022, in addition to the 160 million vaccines that were secured by the previous contract.

The EU also agreed with Moderna on an option to purchase an additional 150 million doses if needed.

In January, top EU officials criticized AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech for delays in vaccine shipments and underlined that the bloc financially contributed to their research in order to receive the jabs first.

However, Von der Leyen admitted last week the EU was “late to authorize vaccines” and “too optimistic about massive production and expectations on timely delivery.”

The EU signed advanced purchase agreements with six biotechnological firms -- Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, CureVac, Johnson & Johnson, and Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline -- to buy about 2.6 billion vaccine doses for the bloc’s 450 million population and its neighboring countries.

The European Commission also introduced a transparency and authorization mechanism on coronavirus vaccines produced in EU countries.

Under the new rules, before giving export authorization for COVID-19 jabs, member states will have to notify the European Commission whether a pharmaceutical company timely delivered the vaccines within the bloc.

The EU is aiming to vaccinate 70% of the adult population by the end of September.

Some 22 million people have so far received one dose of vaccines, while 7 million have been fully vaccinated, meaning they have received both of the required doses.