European Union Executive Committee President Ursula von der Leyen today announced that Europe must prepare for the next phase of the epidemic by purchasing up to 1.8 billion more doses of vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, a German biotech company, over the next two years.
Ursula von der Leyen announced today on Twitter that she has just agreed to a vaccine procurement agreement that will result in the purchase of another 900 million doses from Pfizer and BioNTech from 2021 to 2023, with an option for another 900 million doses, for a total of up to 1.8 billion doses of vaccine.
With vaccination progressing well, she said, Europe must prepare for the next phase. This includes strengthening the response to possible variants of the virus and preparing children and adolescents for vaccination.
In an interview in late April, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla expressed confidence that the new version of the vaccine currently in the pipeline would also prove effective against new variants of the virus.
Euronews reported today that the new vaccine contract between the EU and Pfizer/BioNTech will not only involve the production of the vaccine in quantity, but will also ensure that all necessary ingredients come from the EU.
The EU now sees ordering enough vaccine and accelerating vaccination as a top priority. Von der Leyen was scheduled to vaccinate 70% of European adults by the end of September this year, but this target may be reached earlier than the end of July following an increase in vaccine supply.
In addition to accelerating adult vaccination, vaccination of children and adolescents is considered a key stage in the next step toward mass immunization and the end of the epidemic, so the EU also placed orders for vaccines as soon as possible.
In this regard, the EU Medicines Agency has recently indicated that it has begun evaluating the expansion of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15 years, with the results expected to be announced in June.
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