EU secures AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine deal as Britain links with J&J

The European Commission said the deal included an option to purchase 100 million additional doses from the drugmaker

The EU said over the past two weeks it was in advanced talks with Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi for their vaccines under development. File picture

The EU has agreed to buy at least 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s potential Covid-19 vaccine in its first such advance purchase deal, while Britain has lined up potential supply of vaccines from US drugmakers Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Novavax. 

The European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of all 27 EU member states, said the deal included an option to purchase 100 million additional doses from the drugmaker should its vaccine prove safe and effective.

The EU’s bilateral deal mirrors moves by the US and other wealthy states, some of which are critical of the WHO’s initiative, and further reduces the potentially available stock in the race to secure effective Covid-19 vaccines.

The EU agreement follows an initial deal with AstraZeneca reached in June by Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance (IVA), a group formed by France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands to secure vaccine doses for all member states.

The Commission did not disclose the terms of the new deal and declined to say whether it had replaced the IVA’s.

“This new agreement will give all EU member states the option to access the vaccine in an equitable manner at no profit during the pandemic,” AstraZeneca said in a statement.

The EU executive said its deals are aimed at financing part of the upfront costs to develop vaccines. The funding would be partial down-payments to secure the shots, but actual purchases would be decided at a later stage by each EU state.

The EU said over the past two weeks it was in advanced talks with Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi for their vaccines under development.

It is also in talks with Pfizer, Moderna, and CureVac to buy upfront their potential Covid-19 vaccines, EU officials said in July.

The EU move could make more difficult efforts led by the WHO and GAVI, a global alliance for vaccines, to buy shots on behalf of rich and developing countries with a separate scheme.

The Commission has urged EU states to shun the WHO-led initiative because it sees it as too expensive and slow. 

Now the Commission is openly saying that vaccines bought from AstraZeneca, and from other vaccine makers, could be donated to poorer states, effectively taking on the very task that the WHO is pursuing with the so-called ACT-Accelerator Hub. 

J&J said it has also agreed to collaborate with the British government on a global Phase III trial to explore the two-dose regimen of its vaccine, which will run parallel to a Phase III single-dose trials. Britain will also work with Novavax on a late-stage British-based trial. Reuters