The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the agreement with Moderna on Tuesday.Olivier Matthys / POOL / EFE
Brussels has signed a contract with the American laboratory Moderna to obtain 160 million doses of its vaccine for covid-19.
The signing of the agreement, announced by Ursula von der Leyen, allows the European Commission to finally have the three most advanced vaccines in its portfolio by having similar agreements with the companies Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.
In total, the community Executive has committed more than 1,000 million doses of various vaccine projects.
Moderna's vaccine announcement surprises the European Commission again without a closed reservation agreement
Moderna's announcement of good preliminary results in its vaccine research caught the European Commission by surprise.
Brussels had not yet signed an agreement with that laboratory, which has appreciated an efficiency of 94.5% in the first analyzes on its vaccine project, which is in phase 3. The same had happened previously with Pfizer-BioNTech, which also has announced a high 95% effectiveness of its vaccine candidate in the trials carried out so far.
Negotiations with Moderna had been open since August, when Brussels closed an agreement to acquire 80 million doses, with the option to buy 80 million more.
After the announcement of the company, the Community Executive rushed to close the pact to ensure that the EU will have the first vaccines to be launched on the market once they are approved by the drug agencies.
"We all know that a safe and effective vaccine will provide a durable and sustainable solution to this pandemic," said Von der Leyen, adding that vaccination will be "crucial" to overcome the pandemic that has been putting governments on the ropes since the past. month of March.
The vast differences between Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford vaccines
The Commission has already closed six contracts with various companies to acquire, in total, more than 1 billion doses that will be distributed proportionally among the Member States when they go on the market.
"Of course, all vaccines will be carefully evaluated by the European Medicines Agency and will only be licensed and marketed if they are proven safe and effective," he recalled.
In addition to Moderna, Brussels has signed deals with AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Curevac, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.
The vaccine was already the main issue that Brussels brought to the G20 summit last weekend.
Von der Leyen asked countries for funds to guarantee universal access to the vaccine.
In the long term, the EU estimates that some 38 billion dollars (32 billion euros) will be needed, but by the end of the year about 4.5 billion (3.8 billion euros) are needed.
The Commission has a special interest in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of its price and simplicity of application, which could make it easier for it to be dispensed quickly and safely to everyone.
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