The European Commission has signed a contract with the Danish company Bavarian Nordic to purchase just under 110,000 monkey pox vaccines, the Commission reported on Tuesday. The vaccines will be distributed as soon as possible among the EU Member States, Norway and Iceland. The Netherlands has decided not to buy any vaccines now.
More and more infections with the monkeypox virus are being detected in EU countries. According to the latest figures, sixty people in the Netherlands have been infected with the virus. Many infections have already been detected in neighboring countries.
“Ensuring that vaccines reach Member States quickly and efficiently after this outbreak is our moral duty,” said Margarítis Schinás, Vice-President of the European Commission. Bavarian Nordic will deliver 109,090 vaccines to the European Commission in the foreseeable future.
These will be distributed among all member states, Norway and Iceland. The Commission does not specify which country will receive how many vaccines. In 2019, the Netherlands itself bought about 100,000 monkeypox vaccines from the same company and also has a strategic stock for which no figures are disclosed. “We have therefore decided not to participate in the purchase this time,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health.
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