Vaccine coordinator: "Corona vaccine for Sweden at the beginning of next year"

It has not been clear whether Sweden should receive the corona vaccine that is now being developed rapidly. There is an ongoing race where several countries have signed sales agreements with manufacturers to secure deliveries to their own population. Four countries (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands) signed an agreement with Astra Zeneca in mid-June on 400 million doses of vaccine starting before the turn of the year.

In addition, 100 million doses will be distributed to other EU countries. In the EU joint negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, Sweden has now been guaranteed a number of these.

- It is clear that Sweden also has access to these vaccines, says Richard Bergström, Sweden's vaccine coordinator, who is sitting and negotiating on behalf of the EU.

For a more equitable distribution and to reduce the risk of investing in a vaccine that will then not work, the EU is now doing a common thing. Another couple, three agreements will be signed before the fall, Richard Bergström believes.

- These vaccines are not finished or approved yet, so more realistic is that we will receive volumes at the beginning of next year and beyond. So it will be during 2021 that we will see enough volumes come to Sweden.

The EU will invest at least SEK 30 billion on development and vaccine factories. Then each country has to pay for the vaccines themselves at the price they are now negotiating.

- The total note may make this worthwhile, but it is probably worth it, the economists say. We want to avoid shutdowns and so many dead ahead.

One question in the negotiations is how much the EU will pay in advance for a vaccine that is not yet known to work. At the same time, companies do not want to take the whole risk.

- We cannot rule out that we will use EU money for something that is then not approved by the authorities and will therefore not be used. But we should avoid it as best we can, says Richard Bergström.