Today, the Commission has approved an amendment to the original advance purchase agreement with the pharmaceutical company Valneva to purchase its vaccine against COVID-19. The joint agreement enables participating Member States to purchase a total amount of 1,250,000 vaccine doses. Given the evolution of the pandemic, and in particular Member States’ expected needs for future vaccination campaigns, the amendment ensures that interested Member States who want access to this particular vaccine, will receive the doses they need in August and September.
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “Our EU Vaccines Strategy continues to deliver at a time when COVID-19 infections are unfortunately rising, once again driven by new highly transmissible variants. The Valneva vaccine is adding another option to the broad EU vaccine portfolio, and thanks to our Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, we are providing the possibility to those Member States who so wish to offer also this vaccine to citizens. Increasing vaccination and boosting will be crucial over the coming months to protect our citizens.”
Valneva is a European biotechnology company developing an inactivated virus vaccine, made of the whole virus that has undergone chemical inactivation. Most of the flu vaccines and many childhood vaccines use this technology. The Commission, with the support of EU Member States, has supported the development of this vaccine based on a sound scientific assessment, the technology used, the company’s experience in vaccine development and its production capacity.
Source: Cyprus News Agency