BRUSSELS (AP) – On Friday, the European Union’s drug agency approved doctors taking one more dose from each vial of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, in a move that, combined with the purchase of An additional 300 million shots of the serum, could accelerate the pace of vaccinations in the bloc of 27 countries.
The European Medicines Agency stated that its Human Medicines Committee recommended updating the product information for the vaccine to clarify that each vial contains six doses instead of the five that were advised when the original light was given to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 21st.
German Health Ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz told reporters in Berlin that the change would take effect immediately, increasing the available doses of the vaccine by 20%.
Many doctors across the EU have already extracted six doses of the vaccine from each vial, a practice that is already allowed in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
Pharmaceutical companies regularly put more vaccines than necessary into vials, so a minimum dose can be ensured even if there is a spill.
The news came shortly after the EU executive arm said it had secured an additional 300 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the new agreement to buy more doses would double the amount ordered by the 27-country bloc.
The EU commission later detailed in a statement that it offered member states to buy an additional 200 million doses of the vaccine, with the option to purchase an additional 100 million doses.
“This would allow the EU to buy up to 600 million doses of this vaccine, which is already being used across the EU. The additional doses will be delivered from the second quarter of 2021,” the EU said. Von der Leyen said 75 million of the additional doses will be available during the second quarter, and the rest will be delivered throughout 2021.
Combined with a contract with Moderna for its vaccine, the EU has the capacity to vaccinate 380 million people, said Von der Leyen, more than 80% of its population.
The EU has sealed six vaccine contracts of up to 2 billion doses, with Moderna, AstraZeneca-Oxford, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Pfizer-BioNTech and CureVac. But only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been approved for use so far on the blog.
At an online public meeting to discuss the drug agency’s work on vaccine review, EMA executive director Emer Cooke said the process for evaluating a third vaccine, done by AstraZeneca, could be finished in late January.
“This, of course, will depend on the data we receive and the progress of the evaluation,” he said. “Once we actually receive the request, we will make a public announcement about it.”
Also Friday, Britain authorized the vaccine developed by Moderna, the third licensed for use in the country.
The UK Department of Health said the vaccine met the “strict safety, efficacy and quality standards of British regulators”.
Britain has ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, although it is not expected to be delivered until spring. So far Britain has inoculated 1.5 million people with the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines.
The European Commission’s announcement came amid growing criticism, especially in Germany, of the decision to let the commission manage vaccine purchases for all EU member states. Vaccination programs in the EU have begun slowly, and some EU members have been quick to blame the European Commission for perceiving a failure in delivering the right number of doses.
The EU has defended its strategy, insisting that vaccination programs have just begun and that large deliveries are expected by April.
“We were facing a situation where we had high demand, but production capacity had not kept up at the same pace as before. Now, we have a positive step forward,” von der Leyen said.
After Germany secured additional doses of BioNTech, a German company, outside the EU agreements, von der Leyen made it clear that individual negotiations would violate the agreement accepted by all members of the bloc.
“We have all agreed, legally binding, that there would be no parallel negotiations or any parallel contracts,” he said. “So the framework in which we all work is a framework of 27. Together we are negotiating, together we are seeking and together we are advancing this vaccination process.”
But Kautz said the agreement with BioNTech “is compatible with EU agreements. The additional allocations we have secured do not interrupt the rest of the contracts.”
“This is a precondition for the memoranda of understanding we concluded,” Kautz told reporters in Berlin. “It will also not be affected by the delivery. No other EU member state will get vaccines later than BioNTech, for example, just because Germany has gotten additional doses of vaccine or committed to additional doses of vaccine.”
Kautz made it clear that the 30 million bilaterally guaranteed doses would be delivered after those ordered across the EU, although it is still expected this year.
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Corder reported from The Hague, the Netherlands. Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.
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