When will the first vaccine against Covid-19 be available? While it is too early to have the answer to this question, governments are not waiting for a release date to order doses of potential effective sera. The latest announcement, that of an advance purchase contract between the European Commission and the German biotech CureVac, explained the European executive in a press release. The initial purchase would be 225 million doses on behalf of EU member states once a vaccine is proven to be effective and safe.
The envisaged contract “Would allow all EU member states to buy the vaccine and also donate to low and middle income countries or transfer it back to European countries”, is it underlined.
And four
This new agreement reached within the framework of the purchase of vaccines by the European Commission is not the first of its kind but the fourth. 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. These four agreements represent a total of 1.225 billion doses for the whole of the European Union.
“The European Commission is keeping its promise to provide Europeans and the world with rapid access to a safe vaccine that protects us against the coronavirus. Each round of negotiations that we conclude with the pharmaceutical industry brings us closer to victory against this virus ”, welcomed the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, quoted in the press release Thursday.
Shopping for vaccines and treatments
This new announcement comes in any case in a context of the race for vaccines against Covid-19. This summer, no less than 168 vaccine candidates are in development. Twenty of them have already entered their phase of clinical trials, that is to say, tested on humans. In three phases, these tests must check that the cocktail is well tolerated by the body, that it is suitable for the different patient profiles and that it is effective in the event of contamination. Among them, four have started phase 3, the final stage.
At the same time, a large number of drugs are currently in clinical trials, such as remdesivir, favipravir and aviptadil. No effective treatment is expected to be available until the first half of 2021, however, says IHS Markit, a leading provider of information and expertise to the global market, industry and technology.
