French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that there was "reasonable prospect" of obtaining a vaccine against the coronavirus "in the coming months", during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I say it and it is very important, at the same time when we have several vaccines which are in phase III, we have prospects which are reasonable to have a vaccine in the coming months", he said. asserted, from Fort Brégançon, in the south-east of France.
"This will not solve the problems of the next few weeks, but the next few months," added Emmanuel Macron, welcoming the European coordination in the search for the vaccine. "We have improved European cooperation on the vaccine together, by associating many other States and the Commission, to first encourage our manufacturers who are looking for a vaccine," he recalled. "And to ensure that we will have the capacity to produce them and deliver them to our populations when they are available," the president stressed.
225 million doses reserved
On Saturday, Russia claimed to have produced its first vaccines against the coronavirus, announced a few days earlier by Vladimir Putin but viewed with skepticism by the rest of the world. As research accelerates to find a vaccine, the European Commission announced on Thursday that it had reserved 225 million doses of the potential Covid-19 vaccine from the German CureVac. This is the fourth such agreement reached by the EU with laboratories.
Brussels has already reserved 300 million of the vaccine in preparation for the French Sanofi, and 400 million for that of the American Johnson & Johnson. On August 14, the Commission also signed an advance purchase contract with the Swedish-British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million additional doses.