European Union to purchase 200 million doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Wednesday that they will supply the European Union with 200 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, which the companies said this week is more than 90 percent effective.

A joint statement from the two companies indicated that the European Commission would handle distribution throughout the EU, should their vaccine candidate be approved.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, Pfizer’s priority has been to develop a safe and effective vaccine, while simultaneously scaling up our manufacturing to deliver doses before the end of the year. This is an ambitious goal but critical to halting this global pandemic,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

“Today’s finalized supply agreement with the European Commission represents the largest initial order of vaccine doses for Pfizer and BioNTech to date and a major step toward our shared goal of making a COVID-19 vaccine available to vulnerable populations,” Bourla added.

Pfizer’s recent announcement about an initial analysis that showed the effectiveness of its vaccine candidate has raised hopes that a vaccine will be available for most Americans by the middle of 2021. The company’s Monday announcement also sent stocks soaring.

“With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis,” Bourla said Monday while announcing the vaccine’s effectiveness. “We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks.”

The U.S. this week passed more than 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and a new surge of cases is vexing health officials nationwide.