European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced today, Tuesday, that the European Union has reached a deal with the American company "Moderna" to buy about 160 million doses of its vaccine against the Corona virus.

"I am pleased to announce that tomorrow we will approve a new contract to secure another vaccine against Covid-19," Von der Leyen said, adding that the deal "allows us to purchase up to 160 million doses of a vaccine produced by Moderna."

The governments of the European Union will make the actual purchases if the vaccine is approved by the drug regulator in the Union.

The schedule for the delivery of the vaccine is still unknown, and the amount of doses will be sufficient to vaccinate 80 million people, as the vaccine is expected to be received in two doses.

With this deal, which is the sixth of its kind with companies producing vaccines, the European Commission has completed the formation of its portfolio of pre-orders for the acquisition of vaccines.

The deal with Moderna raises the European Union’s potential stockpile of Corona vaccines to nearly two billion doses for its population of about 450 million, after Brussels concluded pre-order contracts for vaccines with six Western companies, namely AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson and BioNTech-Pfizer. And CureVac and Moderna

Earlier, European officials expressed their desire for a dose of "Moderna" to be less than $ 25, but the company said Sunday that it would ask governments for between $ 25 and $ 37 per dose, depending on the size of the deals. A spokesperson for the commission declined to comment on the subject of the pricing.

Ursula von der Leyen expressed her hope that the first doses of the vaccines Moderna and Biotec would arrive in the middle of next December in the countries of the Union.

Source: Agencies

By:Nadeemy Haded