EU in talks with Moderna, BioNtech for advance purchase deals of possible COVID vaccines

The European Union is reportedly in talks with Moderna, Sanofi, Johnson &Johnson, BioNtech and CureVac, all major pharmaceutical brands, for an advance purchase deal of potential COVID-19 vaccines. This comes as nearly 150 potential vaccines for coronavirus have been announced by researchers across the world as the pandemic has now spiralled out to infect nearly 14,106,753 people now.

According to reports, four member states of the EU had already reached a deal Britsh-Swedish brand AstraZeneca in June for the upfront purchase of 400 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccine, in principle available to all 27 EU nations. However, the latest talks focused more on Johnson &Johnson and Sanofi.

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With US giant Johnson & Johnson, the EU is currently negotiating the supply of 200 million doses of its possible vaccine in addition to the availability of extra supplies, international media reported citing sources.  All the negotiations were conducted by a steering group representation all 27 EU states.  

To procure vaccine for all

If EU successfully steers through the negotiations, then all the member states would be able to place orders with drugmakers to secure precise amounts for their population. In case. According to the EU commission, the available doses of successful vaccines were not sufficient to cover the whole EU population, shots would be distributed based on demographic and epidemiological data.

This comes as researchers from Russia's Sechenov University have successfully completed clinical trials of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine on volunteers, chief researcher Elena Smolyarchuk told a Russian news outlet on July 12.

The Russian mission to India, in a tweet, quoted Smolyarchuk saying 'the vaccine is safe'. Alexander Lukashev, Director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases at Sechenov University, also vouched for the safety of the drug while speaking to local media. Sechenov University is reported to have started with the first stage of research on June 18 with a group of 18 volunteers. The second group of 20 volunteers was tested for the COVID-19 vaccine on June 23.

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Image credits: AP