EU offers 400 million euros to WHO-led COVID-19 vaccine initiative

[August 31, 2020]  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Monday it would contribute 400 million euros ($476 million) to an initiative led by the World Health Organization to buy COVID-19 vaccines.

The initiative, dubbed COVAX, aims to purchase 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 of potential COVID-19 shots from several vaccine makers.

The EU Commission is negotiating advance purchases of COVID-19 vaccines with several drugmakers on behalf of the 27 EU states and has said in past weeks EU governments cannot buy vaccines through parallel procurement schemes.

"Today, the Commission is announcing a 400 million euro contribution to COVAX for working together in purchasing future vaccines to the benefit of low and middle income countries," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The Commission added in a statement that it was ready, together with EU states, "to put expertise and resources at work within COVAX to accelerate and scale-up development and manufacturing of a global supply of vaccines for citizens across the world, in poor and rich countries."

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by John Chalmers and Andrew Heavens)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.