The European Commission announced on Friday that it has struck a deal with French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to reserve 300 million doses of a possible future COVID-19 vaccine.
The agreement would provide an option for all EU Member States to purchase the vaccine.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said: “While we do not know today which vaccine will work best in the end, Europe is investing in a diversified portfolio of promising vaccines, based on various types of technologies.
“This increases our chances to obtain rapidly an effective remedy against the virus.”
The Commission is currently negotiating with several vaccine developers to strike similar deals, it stated, adding that it is ready to team up with international partners if a “significant number of countries would agree to pool resources for jointly reserving future vaccines from companies for themselves” and for low and middle-income countries at the same time.
It further states, “the high-income countries could act as an inclusive international buyers’ group, thus accelerating the development of safe and effective vaccines and maximise access to them for all who need it across the world.”
A few hours before the European announcement, Sanofi and the British laboratory GSK announced that they would receive up to $ 2.1 billion for the development of their potential anti-COVID-19 vaccine, after being selected to deliver 100 million doses to Americans.
The French government welcomed the Commissions announcement, which will allow each member state of the European Union to order the vaccine on favourable terms, once it has provided sufficient evidence of its efficacy and absence of side effects .
Euronews has reached out to Sanofi for comment.