The European Union is increasingly adapting its vaccination strategy to mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although the European Commission is now attempting to adjust its contracts for the advance purchase of vaccines to this new reality, it also intends to present its bio-defence pilot programme on Wednesday 17 February.
In an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos, published on Tuesday 16 February, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, said that the programme, which is known as the Hera Incubator, will bring together laboratories, health authorities, scientists and the European Commission “with significant dedicated funding”.
“More and better and sequencing is needed to detect mutations as quickly as possible. We must ensure there is a permanent exchange of information with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) so that it can speed up its authorisation process for future vaccines that are adapted to mutations“, she said.
The EMA has so far authorised three Covid-19 vaccines out of the six reserved by the Commission: the vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Johnson & Johnson formally files its application for authorisation
On Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson formally filed its conditional marketing authorisation application with the EMA. According to Von der Leyen, Curevac might also do the same in the second quarter. The President of the Commission did not, however, provide a timetable for Sanofi-GSK, undoubtedly because of the considerable delay experienced by the consortium.
According to Reuters, the Commission, which is currently negotiating new supply contracts with Novavax, Valneva and Moderna, would now like to include a clause that takes the virus’s mutation into account, as this is causing the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) a great deal of concern (see EUROPE 12658/14).
Quoting an EU source, the news agency said that “this would allow the EU not to buy vaccines that are not effective against widespread variants, and to order upgraded versions instead”. “However, the source said clauses were vague on the definition of variants and the actual legal power they would give the EU”, said the agency. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)