17/11/2020 (Agence Europe) – As announced the day before, the European Commission approved on Tuesday 17 November an early purchase agreement for the candidate vaccine developed by the German company CureVac (see EUROPE 12602/2). The agreement provides for the initial purchase of 225 million doses, with the possibility of adding a further 180 million doses. The Commission also pointed out that it had finalised exploratory discussions with the American company Moderna on 160 million doses. “We continue to have the negotiations and we’ll see how this will be translated into an actual contract”. A few hours earlier, the Head of the American biotech company had warned Europeans that the prolonged negotiations could slow down deliveries, with other countries having priority, as they had signed off on orders months earlier. The spokesman for the European Commission did not wish to comment on the state of negotiations with Moderna. (SPj)