The European Commission (EC) signed its first deal to buy COVID-19 vaccines, making a $396 million down payment to AstraZeneca.
According to the EC press release, through the contract, all EU member states will be able to purchase 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with an option for further 100 million doses, to be distributed on a population-based pro-rata basis.
AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate, being developed through a partnership with University of Oxford, is currently in large-scale Phase II/III clinical trials.
The negotiations for the contract were started by the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance countries (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands) who then asked the Commission to take over. Under that deal, the four EU states agreed to buy 300 million shots for $843 million.
The Commission continues discussing similar agreements with other vaccine manufacturers and says it has concluded successful "exploratory talks" with Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson, CureVac and Moderna.
Read the press release