EU Commission, German Firm to Provide 225 Million Doses of Coronavirus Vaccine

 

In the second major announcement on Thursday regarding the availability of a coronavirus vaccine in Europe, the European Commission and the German firm CureVac stated that they were in the process of creating an agreement to deliver at least 225 million doses of a potential vaccine to nations belonging to the EU.

In addition, the executive body of the European Union has also stated that it is in discussions with the American Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and the French/multinational firm Sanofi to make use of any potential vaccines which are now under development,

This announcement comes on the heels of last week’s deal cementing the purchase of at least 300 million doses of a vaccine developed at Oxford University which is currently in the final stages of clinical trials.

Confirming information included in a report by Reuters last month, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides announced “Today we concluded talks with…CureVac to increase the chances of finding an effective coronavirus vaccine.”

Beginning now, the EU will negotiate a contract with CureVac in the hopes that their vaccine will be approved after undergoing its own clinical trials. If it does so, it will be distributed throughout the 27 nations of the EU.

However, if all goes well, there may be an option for the firm to produce another 180 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Human trials could begin on a large scale by the last quarter of 2020, according to the CureVac statement.

Greek press reports say that shares in the company spiked 222% after its debut on the Nasdaq market last Friday; this marked the first time any company joined the stock market as it was developing a coronavirus vaccine.

Reuters reported in July that the EU’s executive body was also in discussions with the American firm Moderna as well as the German laboratory BioNtech, which is in the process of creating its own vaccine with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. All of these laboratories are creating vaccines using messenger RNA, which encourages cells to produce proteins which fight the virus.

Funding for the massive vaccination project will be provided through an EU emergency fund, with 2 billion euros ($2.37 billion) available to finance the purchase of any eventual vaccine, officials stated to Reuters.