EU countries should buy vaccines against COVID-19 only through pan-European negotiations, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference in Brussels.
This is how she answered the question about the possibility of purchasing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
“There is only one format of negotiations – common for the 27 EU member states, no state should deviate from this and hold parallel consultations. Given the existing portfolio of orders, which is 2.3 billion vaccines, this is more than enough to vaccinate the entire population EU”, – said von der Leyen.
She recalled that any vaccine entering the European market must go through the approval and research procedure at the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
“That is, we supply reliable and effective vaccines in more than sufficient quantities”, – von der Leyen said.
In addition, the head of the European Commission announced the renewal of the contract with Pfizer and BioNTech, according to which the European Union will purchase another 300 million doses in addition to the already agreed 300 million.
According to her, this is enough to vaccinate more than 80 percent of the population of EU countries.
The European Commission officially approved the vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech on December 21, a few days later the drug began to be delivered to European countries. The second vaccine, from Moderna, was approved by the EU on January 6. Under this contract, it is planned to purchase up to 160 million doses.
In addition, the EC has entered into agreements for the supply of vaccines with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-GSK and CureVac, however, they have not yet submitted applications for authorization of their developments in the EU market.
In total, these contracts will allow the European Union to receive about 2.3 billion doses of vaccine produced by various companies.