EU To Get 50Mln Doses Of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine In 2021 Q2- Von Der Leyen

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th April, 2021) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday that the bloc had reached an agreement to get 500 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine ahead of schedule, with 1.8 billion extra doses set to arrive from 2022-2023.

"I'm pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with BioNTech/Pfizer to once again speed up the delivery of vaccines. Fifty million additional doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines will be delivered in Q2, beginning in April. Those 50 million doses were initially foreseen for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Now they are available in the second quarter of 2021,"von der Leyen said at a briefing.

The official noted that mRNA vaccines had been effective for defeating the virus decisively.

"Based on all this, we are now entering into a negotiation with BioNTech/Pfizer for a third contract. This contract will foresee the delivery of 1.8 billion additional doses of vaccine, over the period of 2022 and 2023. It will entail not only the production of vaccines but also the essential components, all of that will be based in the European Union. Other contracts with other companies may follow," von der Leyen continued.