The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Friday 8 January that the institution had secured on behalf of the European Union a group purchase of 300 million doses (including 100 million doses as an option) of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, in addition to the 300 million doses already approved in November 2020 (see EUROPE 12600/5).
“We have to vaccinate as many Europeans as possible as quickly as possible”, she said at a rare press conference at the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters. Of these 300 million new doses, Ms von der Leyen indicated that “75 million” would be available from the second quarter and the rest during 2021. With the vaccine from Moderna authorised this week in the EU (see EUROPE 12630/1), she welcomed the fact that the EU will be able to vaccinate “385 million Europeans, i.e. more than 80% of the European population”. In total, a potential portfolio of “2.3 billion doses” has been built up and will also be used to vaccinate people in neighbouring and developing countries.
The Commission president defended the approach of negotiating on behalf of the EU27 for a wide portfolio of candidate vaccines with pharmaceutical groups and helping them to mass-produce the most promising vaccines in order to rapidly acquire doses of the vaccines that have proven their effectiveness with the European Medicines Authority (EMA).
“In the summer of 2020, there were 160 vaccine candidates. Six appear to be successful at this stage. The European Commission immediately invested in the production of doses. If we hadn’t done so, we wouldn’t have as many doses available, we wouldn’t be able to double the number of doses of the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech”, Ms von der Leyen considered. She noted that the Pfizer-BioNTech group had itself announced in December that it was reducing its international deliveries, as its production capacity could not keep up with too great a demand.
A unique negotiating framework. Asked about the controversy linked to the steps that some Member States such as Germany have allegedly taken in parallel to secure more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the President of the Commission gave assurances that there is a “single”, “very clear” and “legally binding” framework that prohibits parallel negotiations and contracts. “We negotiate together and buy together”, she said.
In a meeting with the press, Portuguese Minister for Health Marta Temido said that negotiations leading to a group purchase of vaccines “does not prevent each country from making efforts on the sidelines if it considers that it needs to do more”. Countries that have done that, have done so “afterwards, once the bulk purchases have been signed off”, she added. Stressing the importance of solidarity, she also pointed out that “some countries (had) made some doses available to countries that could not acquire all the doses of Moderna vaccine”.
As for the delays in starting national vaccination campaigns, Ms von der Leyen did not deny the existence of a “bumpy road” at the start. She argued that “Member States (were) doing their best” to meet an unprecedented logistical challenge, particularly in managing the cold chain. “Bottlenecks” in production capacity and public reluctance to be vaccinated are very significant elements, independent of the level of cooperation at European level, Ms Temido also said.
The EU Heads of State or Government will review the implementation of their vaccination strategy on Thursday 21 January by videoconference. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)