The EU (European Union) is switching to the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shots with a record deal to purchase up to 1.8 billion vaccine doses when court proceedings in its case against another primary vaccine producer (AstraZeneca) started in Brussels on Wed.
The deal with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which is yet to be completed in an official agreement, will be the world’s biggest single agreement for the Coronavirus vaccine to date. Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission President) declared that the landmark buys on Friday during a tour to a Pfizer production factory in Puurs, Belgium, describing the Coronavirus vaccines will be shipped through to 2023.
The agreement was appeared when pressure increases on rich countries to halt purchasing more vaccine doses than their populations require to make sure that there are sufficient for the rest of the world.
The New York Times published the negotiations on Wednesday based on talks between Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Ursula von der Leyen, and many other specialists and officials, which portrayed the picture of personal diplomacy between the EU chiefs and Pfizer.
Many world leaders approached Albert Bourla
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told the New York Times that many world leaders had reached out to him, from prime ministers or presidents and kings, and many general secretaries of foundations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she dealt with difficulties as a leader when it became visible that AstraZeneca wasn’t going to deliver on its targets. She continued that she knew that the upscaling of the vaccine deliveries would have a leisure start by nature in the beginning, and she also knew that the first quarter was going to be tough.
She further explained that she didn’t expect it to be as difficult because they didn’t include the possibility that vaccine maker AstraZeneca would decrease deliveries by seventy-five percent, which was a heavy setback.
She added that the Pfizer agreement would add an opening nine-hundred million doses with the option for an extra 900 million, reported by the New York Times. Furthermore, the EC (European Commission) didn’t immediately confirm that information to a media agency, CNN.
The spokesperson of the European Commission wouldn’t comment on the information mentioned in the New York Times report, instead referring media outlet, CNN, to Leyen’s remarks on Friday that where she addresses the significance of a productive relationship between the EC (European Commission) and many stakeholders involved in their vaccine plan.