EU accepts purchase of 300 million coronavirus vaccine doses

Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands have signed an agreement with pharmaceutical group, AstraZeneca, to guarantee 300 million doses of a possible coronavirus vaccine.

The German government through the Ministry of Health announced this latest development on Saturday June 13, 2020.

The agreement was signed between the four countries and the group to guarantee the supply of 300 million possible coronavirus vaccine doses to the EU member states.

AstraZeneca pharmaceutical group was established in 1999 after the merger between the Swedish company Astra and British company Zeneca with the aim of providing vaccine supply to all EU member states.

Oxford University in Britain has pioneered the inoculation and would be working in conjunction with the AstraZeneca group.

The firm has been building separate supply chains around the world during the test, striking other deals earlier this month to double production capacity two more than two billion doses.

Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement that the agreement would ensure that hundreds of millions of European citizens have access to Oxford University’s vaccine after its approval.

Pascal added that the increasing vaccine supply chains for European would give hope to make the vaccine available widely and rapidly.

German government expressed optimism that, after trial expansion by Oxford University from the initial hundreds to 10, 000 volunteers, development of a vaccine could be successfully completed before next year, 2021.

Germany Ministry assured that the vaccine production potentially rising to 400 million doses would be made available to all EU member states interested based on the population size of each state.

The World Bank’s estimate of 447 million population of EU countries is nearly commensurate with the projected production of 400 million coronavirus vaccine doses.

German Minister Jens Spahn stated that “the swift and coordinated action of a group of member states” would see “all EU citizens” stand to benefit from the future vaccine.

The EU Commission had backed the vaccine production idea on Friday, stating that advance purchase contracts by EU member states would guarantee privileged access to the vaccine once the vaccine is available.

The advance purchase would be commitment from the EU member states to have the right to buy doses at a certain price after production.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen many pharmaceutical groups worldwide in a race to develop an effective vaccine to save the world.

So far, more than 417,000 fatalities and over 7.4 million cases have been recorded from the coronavirus pandemic worldwide.