Ireland to get 4.5m extra vaccine doses under new EU deal

More than 4.5m extra vaccine doses will be coming to Ireland as the EU signs a new deal with Moderna for 150m extra doses this year and confirm a deal with PfizerBioNTech for 300m additional doses.

More than 4.5m extra vaccine doses will be coming to Ireland as the EU signs a new deal with Moderna for 150m extra doses this year and confirms a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech for 300m additional doses.

More support for research into tackling Covid-19 variants was also announced on Wednesday by the European Commission, and it indicated a streamlining of the vaccine approval process is underway.

The PfizerBioNTech deal was signalled in January and could see Ireland receiving up to 3.3m extra doses, according to the head of the Vaccine Task Force Professor Brian MacCraith.

The Moderna deal will see 150m doses coming to the EU in 2021 and an option to purchase an additional 150m next year.

Ireland’s share of this vaccine is much smaller, with current deliveries running at about 10,500 weekly. The new deal would see Ireland get about 1.5m extra doses this year.

Under the terms of a deal with the EU, Ireland receives about 1.1% of the overall orders, based on population size. 

✅ This afternoon, I will be signing a second @EU_Commission contract with @BioNTech_Group/@pfizer for up to an additional 300 million #COVID19 vaccine doses. This follows up on our 8 January agreement reached with the company.
➡️ https://t.co/gZu4eQADJg

— Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) February 17, 2021

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said: “The contract is important not only for the short term needs of the EU, but also for our future work to limit the rapid spread of new variants.” 

The EU has already ordered 2.3bn doses of vaccines through agreements with six pharmaceutical companies, with payments coming to €2.9bn.

Five vaccines are already either delivering or in manufacturing, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

“In our fight against the virus, we are anticipating problems and acting proactively to mobilise all means to address the impact of variants,” she said.

She said large amounts of the vaccine were needed not only for European citizens but also for the EU to fulfil its commitment through the Covax deal to support less developed countries.

The bio-defence preparedness platform will lay the foundations for the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority that will enable the EU to anticipate and tackle better future pandemics.

More in our Q&A: https://t.co/ouRJhILgue#HealthUnion #SafeVaccines pic.twitter.com/IvtXphLMxh

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) February 17, 2021

A new plan, The Hera incubator, is a European bio-defence plan against Covid-19 variants and involves researchers, biotech companies, manufacturers and public authorities in the EU and globally.

The plan includes €75m to boost genetic sequencing of the virus in Europe and boosting clinical trial capacity to include working towards trials for children.

The cumbersome vaccine approval process which has seen the EU fall behind the US, for example, will also be streamlined.

Vaccine manufacturing capacity will also be built up, the commission said.

Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission, said this would take time and significant investment.

“We would like to put in a place a network of all the industries which exist today on our soil, in continental Europe. We need to find the right governance structure, and funding,” he said.