The EU has concluded an agreement with BioNTech / Pfizer to provide up to 1.8 billion extra doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, European Commission leader Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday. 8th May 2021

Happy to announce that the European Commission has just approved a contract to guarantee 900 million doses (+900 million options) with BioNTech / Pfizer for 2021-2023″, tweeted the European official, who is in Portugal for the Summit Social, in Porto. “Other contracts and other vaccine technologies will come,” he promised.

The contract with the German and American laboratories, allies in the production of anti-covid-19 vaccines, provides for deliveries starting this year and until 2023.

The new contract, which is endorsed by the Member States of the European Union, will involve not only the production of vaccines, but also the guarantee that all essential components must come from the EU.

“Vaccination is progressing well” in Europe, said Ursula von der Leyen, quoted by the Associated Press (AP), adding that the EU is now preparing “a new stage in the response” to the covid-19 pandemic.

The new doses will make it possible, in particular, to protect the population against new variants of the new coronavirus, but also to vaccinate children and adolescents.

The contract announced today is the third between the EU and the German-American alliance.

According to the agency France-Presse, the European Commission currently has a portfolio of 2.3 billion doses of vaccines from various companies.

The Commission, which negotiates on behalf of the 27 member states, signed a first contract with BioNTech and Pfizer in November for a total of 300 million doses of the vaccine.

Brussels signed a second contract on January 8, also for 300 million doses (including optional 100 million).

In total, the EU received 67 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine in the first quarter, and expects to receive an additional 250 million doses in the second quarter.