With Europe suffering through an extreme surge of coronavirus cases, the European Union has entered into negotiations with Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the companies’ vaccines, with an option to acquire an additional 200 million doses if desired.
This is on top of the 300 million doses that were already acquired by the EU. While the initial 300 million doses were to be delivered at the end of 2020 and start of 2021, the additional batches would arrive sometime later and should prove sufficient to vaccinate up to two-thirds of the EU’s 27-nation population.
The EU’s decision to enter into further negotiations with Pfizer and BioNTech comes as the U.K. enters into its third national lockdown following the detection of a new, more contagious strain of the virus. This has resulted in skyrocketing pressure aimed at the approval of the emergency use of several coronavirus vaccine candidates.
As of late, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only candidate to have received emergency use authorization from the EU at present. Moderna Inc’s application for conditional approval of its vaccine is currently pending, while AstraZeneca plc is yet to file a regulatory application with the European Union.
