200 Million Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccines Reserved By EU

The European Union said that it had entered an agreement with six pharmaceutical companies to reserve 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said, “Our chances to develop and deploy a safe and effective vaccine have never been higher, both for Europeans here at home, or for the rest of the world.

“To defeat coronavirus anywhere, we need to defeat it everywhere.”

The Belgian Government already signed agreements with five pharmaceutical brands for the procurement of their vaccines, if and when they ever develop them; the companies are Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, and Curevac.

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Speaking on the issue, the union's health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said, “We are optimistic that among these candidates there will be a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19 to help us defeat this pandemic."

Pfizer, one of the firms in an agreement with the EU said, “We have activated our supply chain, most importantly our site in Belgium, and are starting to manufacture so that our vaccine would be available as soon as possible if our clinical trials prove successful and regulatory approval is granted."