The European Commission on Thursday signed a third contract with the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, reserving on behalf of the member states 1.8 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, to be delivered in 2023. 

The contract will enable the purchase of 900 million doses of the existing vaccine and vaccines adapted to coronavirus variants, with the optional purchase of an additional 900 million doses. EC President Ursula von der Leyen said potential contracts with other producers would be based on the same model.

The new contract determines that the vaccine is produced in the EU and that its key ingredients must be purchased in the EU.

European Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides underlined the need to secure access to adapted vaccines as protection against new variants and to enable re-vaccination “to extend immunity and protect younger people”

She said that the EU was focused primarily on technologies that had proven successful, such as mRNA vaccines, but was also open to other options.