EU secures corona vaccine from Curevac

Lisa Weidner studied German and sociology and completed several journalistic internships. She is a volunteer at Hubert Burda Media Verlag and writes for the "Meine Familie und Ich" magazine and on nutrition and health topics.

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The EU has secured access to up to 405 million doses of the potential corona vaccine from the Tübingen-based biotech company Curevac.

The exploratory talks with the company have been concluded, the EU Commission announced on Thursday in Brussels. According to Curevac, there is a preliminary contract for 225 million cans and an option for 180 million more. These would be made available once the vaccine the company is currently working on has been shown to be effective and safe.

"Every round of talks that we conclude with the pharmaceutical industry brings us closer to our goal of defeating the virus," said EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. The Tübingen-based company CureVac was the second company in Germany after Biontech that was allowed to start clinical testing of a vaccine candidate against Corona (houseofgoldhealthproducts.de reported).

Several negotiations are running in parallel

The EU Commission had already concluded similar preliminary talks on hundreds of million doses with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV and Sanofi-GSK. Negotiations with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca are one step further. A framework agreement for the purchase of 300 million cans with an option for a further 100 million cans is already in place. The vaccine doses are intended for the EU countries, but can also be donated to other, less affluent countries as well as other European countries.

Germany no longer negotiates single-handedly

Upon request, the EU Commission confirmed that Germany and other EU countries are no longer negotiating their own contract with AstraZeneca in parallel. Originally, a so-called vaccine alliance from Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands had signed a contract with AstraZeneca for at least 300 million vaccine doses. At the request of the four states, however, these negotiations have been taken over by the EU Commission, the Brussels authority said.

The EU vaccine strategy provides for preliminary contracts and purchase guarantees to secure access to sufficient quantities of vaccines that are still under development. The aim is to build manufacturing capacities - although manufacturers are not yet sure that their means will really work.

You can find everything you need to know about vaccinations in general on our special page. (lw / dpa)

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