European Commission Reserves Additional 1.8bn BioNTech / Pfizer Vaccine Doses

On Thursday 20 May 2021, the European Commission signed a third contract with the pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer for an additional 1.8 billion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine.

The contract reserves a total of 1.8 billion doses on behalf of all European Union (EU) Member States between the end of 2021 and 2023. It will allow for the purchase of 900 million doses of the current vaccine and of a vaccine adapted to variants, with the option to purchase an additional 900 million doses.

The contract requires that the vaccine production is based in the EU and that essential components are sourced from the EU. It also stipulates that, from the start of the supply in 2022, delivery to the EU is guaranteed. The possibility for Member States to resell or donate doses to countries in need outside the EU or through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility has been reinforced, contributing to a global and fair access to the vaccine across the world. This new contract is expected to strengthen the EU vaccine production capacity thus allowing to serve other markets across the world.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, commented: "With our signature, the new contract is now in force, which is good news for our long term fight to protect European citizens against the virus and its variants! Production and delivery in the EU of up to 1.8 billion doses are guaranteed.  Potential contracts with other manufacturers will follow the same model, to the benefit of all".

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, added: "We need to be one step ahead of the virus. This means having access to adapted vaccines to protect us against the threat of variants, booster vaccines to prolong immunity, as well as protecting our younger population. Our focus is a priority on technologies that have proven their worth, like mRNA vaccines, but we keep our options open. The past months have clearly demonstrated the need to have access to a broad portfolio of vaccines and different technologies, as well as reliable partners. As the pace of vaccination increases every day and work on effective therapeutics intensifies, we can look ahead with more optimism and confidence".

This new contract with the BioNTech-Pfizer alliance builds upon the broad portfolio of vaccines to be produced in Europe, including the already signed contracts with AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Curevac and Moderna and BioNTech / Pfizer itself. The Commission has granted conditional marketing authorisation for the vaccines developed by BioNTech / Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson. 

BioNTech is a German company working with US-based Pfizer to develop a vaccine based on messenger RNA (mRNA). The Commission decided to continue supporting this vaccine based on a sound scientific assessment, the technology used, the companies' experience in vaccine development and their production capacity to supply the whole of the EU. The Commission will also complement this contract with other contracts for vaccines based on other technologies.