• Health.How does Moderna's vaccine against Covid actually work?

  • Covid: Pfizer's vaccine is 94% effective, according to an Israeli study

The European Union has signed a new contract with Moderna to ensure the delivery of an additional 300 million doses of the vaccine against Covid19.

This was announced this afternoon by the president of the European Commission,

Ursula von der Leyen

.

The agreement contemplates the delivery of 150 million units in 2021 and the possibility of another as many next year, and also opens the possibility to donate an undetermined amount of them to low-income countries or "redirect them to other European countries" , as explained by Von der Leyen.

The EU already has agreements with BioNTech / Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Curevac and Moderna,

"a diversity that ensures that Europe will have access to 2.6 billion doses

, once the vaccines have proven to be safe and effective, "says the statement published today, which points to an important element: not all vaccines have been approved or are being delivered.

Only Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have authorization from the European Medicines Agency.

Janssen has submitted the papers and a decision is expected next month.

"With this new contract with Moderna we add another 300 million doses of a licensed safe and effective vaccine.

This marks another step towards our goal of providing rapid access to citizens of Europe and elsewhere this year. The contract is important not only for the short-term needs of the EU, but also for our future work to limit the rapid spread of new variants ", said Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

To date 34 million doses have been delivered, 22 million Europeans have received at least one puncture and some 17 million have completed the required double dose.

Commissioner Thierry Breton assured today, after visiting the AstraZeneca facilities in Belgium, that the Anglo-Swedish company is "catching up" and that the pace of production and deliveries "has clearly improved".

"HERA Incubator"

Today in Brussels they have proposed "immediate action to prepare Europe for the growing threat of coronavirus variants. The new European

biodefense

preparedness plan

against COVID-19 variants

, called" HERA Incubator ", will put work together with researchers, biotechnology companies, manufacturers and public authorities in the EU and globally to detect new variants, provide incentives to develop new and adapted vaccines, speed improve the approval process of these vaccines and ensure the expansion of capabilities of manufacturing, "according to the Commission.

The idea is, for example, to promote specialized tests to detect new variants and to support genomic sequencing in the Member States, and

for this there will be at least 75 million euros of EU funding

.

The EU seeks the target of 5% genome sequencing of positive tests "to help identify variants, monitor their spread in populations and assess their impact on transmissibility. And to intensify research and data exchange on variants, to which end there will be another 150 million euros. Finally, they have baptized with

Vaccelerate

, a play on words with vaccine and accelerate in English, the launch of a network of clinical trials "that brings together 16 EU Member States and five associated countries, including Switzerland and Israel, to exchange data and progressively also include children and young adults as participants in clinical trials. "

The objective, President Von der Leyen has indicated, is to also accelerate the vaccine approval process, in the administrative part and not the medical one.

And multiply the speed to produce the appropriate vaccines to deal with the variants that appear.

How?

"Developing a voluntary and specific licensing mechanism to facilitate technology transfer

; Supporting cooperation between companies; Ensuring the EU's manufacturing capacity," the Commission promises.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccines

Covid-19 British variant of the Kent coronavirus will spread across the world

SurveyMore than 7 out of 10 Spaniards, in favor of limiting rights to stop Covid

Coronavirus Covid-19 vaccination schedule: order of groups and vaccines

See links of interest

  • Work calendar

  • Barcelona - PSG, live

  • RB Leipzig - Liverpool

  • Stefanos Tsitsipas - Rafa Nadal, live