The European Commission published, on Friday 17 September, a pre-information notice for manufacturers of vaccines and medicines wishing to participate in the call for tenders that will start in 2022, under the EU FAB programme.
This call will aim to select manufacturers who are willing to make part of their production capacity available to the EU so that the EU can build up a “ network of ‘ever-warm’ production capacities for vaccine and medicine manufacturing”, the Commission says.
Outside of health crisis periods, these facilities will be used for their usual activities. But in the event of a crisis and an increase in demand for medical countermeasures, the EU FAB programme will be activated and the network of facilities will be called upon to respond to an increased supply.
According to the pre-information notice, the contracts with the selected vaccine manufacturers will provide for a total EU production capacity of 700 million doses, “half of which would need to be made available within the first 6 months following activation of EU FAB”. Manufacturers will also be expected to ensure the availability of qualified personnel, clear operational processes as well as quality controls.
The EU FAB programme will be managed by the new European HERA service, unveiled on Thursday 16 September and designed to prepare the EU for health crises (see EUROPE 12792/24).
To see the opinion: https://bit.ly/39huBDc (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)