BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union has agreed an advance purchase agreement with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline to buy the companies’ potential COVID-19 vaccine, according to a tweet from European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
The agreement is the second such deal struck by the European Union. Kyriakides said she was hosting the signature of the contract.
The deal, for all 27 EU countries, covers the purchase of 300 million doses.
In return for the right to the doses, the European Commission will finance part of the upfront costs faced by vaccine producers. The vaccine doses themselves would be bought by EU countries.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Jan Strupczewski, editing by Marine Strauss)
