๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ EU Commissioner Kyriakides signs vaccine contract with BioNTech-Pfizer

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EU Commissioner Kyriakides signs vaccine contract with BioNTech-Pfizer
European Commissioner on Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides signed on Friday EU`s 5th vaccine contract with pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer, as adopted by the College of Commissioners on November 11th.

The contract provides for the initial purchase of 200 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States, plus an option to request up to a further 100 million doses, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19. Member States can decide to donate the vaccine to lower and middle-income countries or to re-direct it to other European countries. Commissioner Kyriakides called it “another milestone in our efforts to provide all citizens with a safe and effective way out of the pandemic”.

According to the Commission, “the contract with the BioNTech-Pfizer alliance builds upon the broad portfolio of vaccines to be produced in Europe, including the already signed a contracts with AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, and the concluded successful exploratory talks with CureVac and Moderna”. “This diversified vaccines portfolio will ensure Europe is well prepared for vaccination, once the vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective”, EC says.

Stella Kyriakides noted on November 11th that โ€œa safe and effective vaccine is the only lasting exit strategy from the pandemic, and is at the centre of our European Vaccine Strategy”, adding that the agreement “follows the encouraging first indications from the clinical trial results and is further evidence of our commitment to putting more Europe in the area of health”. “It is a very telling example of what the EU can achieve when working together, as a Union, and a case in point of what a future European Health Union will be able to deliver”, Commissioner Kyriakides said.

BioNTech is a German company working with US-based Pfizer to develop a new vaccine based on messenger RNA (mRNA). mRNA plays a fundamental role in biology, transferring instructions from DNA to cells` protein making machinery. In an mRNA vaccine, these instructions make harmless fragments of the virus which the human body uses to build an immune response to prevent or fight disease.

The Commission has taken a decision to support this vaccine based on “a sound scientific assessment, the technology used, the companies` experience in vaccine development and their production capacity to supply the whole of the EU”, according to an official statement.

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