The European Commission ordered 400 million doses of vaccines of AstraZeneca

On August 14, 2020 AstraZeneca announced the conclusion with the European Commission of the agreement on supply of vaccines against COVID-19 coronavirus. The agreement provides about 400 million doses of the medicine which received name AZD1222.

Under the terms of the reached agreement, it will give to all EU Member States the accessibility to vaccine during a pandemic.  Besides, the agreement allows the states to redirect doses to other European countries.

The European Commission ordered 400 million doses of vaccines of AstraZeneca

Vaccine AZD1222 was developed jointly by the University of Oxford and its subsidiary company Vaccitech. By August 14, 2020 it passed the first and second phases of tests. The European Commission explains that "regulatory processes will be flexible, but at the same time steady".

Together with member states and the European medical agency European Commission will use the existing flexible opportunities in the regulatory base of the EU for acceleration of issue of permissions and ensuring availability of successful vaccines from COVID-19. It includes expedited procedure of authorization and flexibility concerning marking and packaging, said in the statement of EC.

By words the chairman of EC of Ursula von der Leien, intensive negotiations of the European Commission continue to bring results. The agreement with AstraZeneca is the first cornerstone in strategy implementation of the European Commission concerning vaccines, she noted.

U.S. authorities provided $1.2 billion the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and to the University of Oxford (Great Britain).

According to the commissioner of the European Union for health care  Stella Kiriakidis, the block also conducts intensive negotiations with other developers of vaccines, including Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson&Johnson, CureVac, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline.^[1]

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