The European Commission will allocate 400 million euros ($477.5 million) in guarantees to the global COVAX Facility, a mechanism designed to accelerate the development and fair distribution of an effective coronavirus vaccine.
The allocation will also ensure the future vaccine’s supplies reach low- and middle-income countries, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.
“A true moment of global solidarity: @EU_Commission will provide €400 mil. in guarantees to #COVAX to buy & deliver vaccines to low & middle-income countries.
“Together we make all efforts to speed up development & delivery of coronavirus vaccines to Europeans & rest of the world,” von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
The president also said that the European Commission continued in parallel negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to purchase doses of the future possible COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of the EU member states.
Last week, the European Commission signed a contract with the UK-based pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, for the purchase of 300 million doses of the vaccine against the coronavirus, which will be available to all EU member states, with an option for a further 100 million doses to be bought.
The contract will also allow the donation to lower- and middle-income countries or redirection to other European countries.
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