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    European Union in talks with Moderna, BioNtech, CureVac to secure Covid-19 vaccines

    Synopsis

    The talks follow a deal reached in June by four EU states with AstraZeneca for the upfront purchase of 400 million doses of its potential Covid-19 vaccine, in principle available to all 27 EU nations. The information on the ongoing talks was shared by the European Commission, the EU executive arm, with EU health ministers at a meeting in Berlin on Thursday.

    1Reuters
    Finland’s PM Sanna Marin, Belgium’s PM Sophie Wilmes, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of the European Union Council in Brussels.
    Brussels: The European Union is negotiating advance purchase deals of potential Covid-19 vaccines with drugmakers Moderna, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson and biotech firms BioNtech and CureVac, two EU sources told Reuters.

    The talks follow a deal reached in June by four EU states with AstraZeneca for the upfront purchase of 400 million doses of its potential Covid-19 vaccine, in principle available to all 27 EU nations.
    The information on the ongoing talks was shared by the European Commission, the EU executive arm, with EU health ministers at a meeting in Berlin on Thursday, the sources said. “We are in talk with several companies on possible Covid-19 vaccines,” a spokesman for the EU Commission told Reuters on Friday, declining to comment on specific firms as negotiations were confidential.

    The most advanced EU talks appear to be those with Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, confirming a Reuters report in June, because the EU is already discussing details on the number of doses needed.

    With US giant Johnson & Johnson, the European Union is negotiating a supply of 200 million doses of its potential vaccine, the sources said, adding that additional supplies may also be available.

    ‘ADVANCED TALKS’
    The bloc is also planning to secure in the second half of next year 300 million doses of the potential vaccine developed by France’s Sanofi in cooperation with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, the sources said.

    Asked about the negotiations, Sanofi told Reuters it was in “advanced talks with the EU for the delivery of 300 million doses”.

    Negotiations were also ongoing with US firm Moderna, whose experimental vaccine showed this week it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study.

    The bloc is also in talks with German biotechnology firms BioNtech and CureVac to buy in advance their potential vaccines, the sources said. Both firms, which have already been offered EU funds to develop their shots, declined to comment.


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