Commission closes in on deal to secure 300M doses of coronavirus vaccine

Agreement with Sanofi would ‘provide for an option for all EU member countries to purchase the vaccine.’

The European Commission Friday announced plans to sign its first deal with a drugmaker for a potential coronavirus vaccine, an agreement that could secure 300 million doses on behalf of all EU members.

The deal with France’s Sanofi is not yet finalized and is being described as an “envisaged contract” that would “provide for an option for all EU member countries to purchase the vaccine.” The announcement comes following talks between the Commission and Sanofi, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promising that “more will follow soon.”

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“We are in advanced discussions with several other companies. While we do not know today which vaccine will work best in the end, Europe is investing in a diversified portfolio of promising vaccines, based on various types of technologies,” she said in a statement.

The Commission hopes to sign an advance purchase agreement with Sanofi for the 300 million doses using financing from its Emergency Support Instrument.

In the statement, the Commission also appeared to express support for the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s COVAX scheme, designed to provide equal access to COVID-19 vaccines. While not mentioning the scheme by name, the Commission said it was “ready to explore with international partners if a significant number of countries would agree to pool resources for jointly reserving future vaccines from companies for themselves as well as for low and middle-income countries at the same time.”

Today’s deal comes following the U.K. and the U.S. inking multiple deals with drugmakers over the past several weeks.