Covid-19: Moderna puts pressure on the EU to encourage it to order its new vaccine
The entrance to a building of the Moderna laboratory in the suburbs of Houston in the United States (illustrative image).
AP Photo / Bill Sikes
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Moderna laboratory has announced that its vaccine against Covid-19 would be 94.5% effective, according to an interim analysis.
But, even if the tests are successful, not sure that the EU will have rapid access to these vaccines.
The boss of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, is in any case putting pressure on the European Union.
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The boss of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, asks for something concrete.
Advanced discussions with the European Commission were certainly conducted last August for the purchase of 80 million doses of vaccines, but the firm commitment has not been signed.
In the meantime, Moderna has reached an agreement with Canada, Japan, Israel, Qatar and the United Kingdom.
And that's without counting the 100 million doses promised this summer in the United States.
The French boss of this American laboratory therefore warns that while this will not limit the total quantity of vaccines produced, it could however cause delivery delays.
Read also: The race for the vaccine against the Covid-19 is accelerating, Moderna announces 94.5% of efficiency for his
Concretely, if ever, the vaccine was authorized by the European Medicines Agency before the end of the year, but no contract was not signed, the first doses produced in Switzerland and packaged in Spain would be delivered to Switzerland, in Japan, Israel and Canada but not in the European Union.
The more the signing will be postponed, the more deliveries will be "
shifted in time
", warns Stéphane Bancel.
The European Commission justifies itself
Clément Beaune, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs responded on Twitter.
He promises that the contract will be concluded soon and asks not to sink into "
Europe bashing
".
However, the European Commission has endeavored to defend its management of the talks.
“
We started discussions with the vaccine developers extremely early, before the summer!
Our discussions are continuing in parallel with the development of vaccines,
”the spokesperson for the Brussels executive Eric Mamer said on Tuesday.
“
But we do not make the signing of a contract conditional on any specific announcement.
The point is that, in several cases, preliminary discussions were concluded long before any
“success”
announcement
, he observed.
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Coronavirus
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