Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France have agreed to pay an initial $843.2 million (750 million euros) for 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s potential vaccine against COVID-19.
The deal is the first contract signed by Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance (IVA), a group formed by the four countries to secure vaccine doses for all member states as soon as possible.
AstraZeneca has agreed manufacturing deals globally to meet its target of producing 2 billion doses of the vaccine, including with two ventures backed by Bill Gates and a $1.2 billion agreement with the U.S. government.
The countries involved in the securing the European deal with the drugmaker have stated that vaccines will be available to all EU countries that sign up to the scheme and distributed based on population.
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