EU increases COVID vaccine deal with Pfizer-BioNTech to 600 million doses

Brussels, Switzerland

The European Union has scored a deal with the vaccine producer Pfizer-BioNTech to purchase additional 300 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, which is double the number of doses being purchased from these companies.

"We make sure Europeans have sufficient doses of safe & effective #COVID19 vaccines," the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in a press conference.

"We now enable EU countries to buy more doses of the 1st vaccine approved in EU," she said. "They can now buy up to 300 million more doses of the #BioNTech/

@Pfizer vaccine."

"We have right now, access to 300 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. Now the good news is, we now have agreed with BioNTech/Pfizer to extend this contract. With the new agreement we could purchase a total of up to an additional 300 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine," she said.

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This agreement includes a possible immediate order for 200 million doses and an additional option to buy another 100 million, the Commission said.

The announcement has come at a time when the European countries are struggling to contain the spread of the new variant of the coronavirus. Many countries have also started looking for vaccines from local producers, and some have also turned to Moderna Inc. Brazil's private clinics have taken a step further and requested for the usage of India's local vaccine, which was approved by the Indian government last week.