BRIEF—Coronavirus: European Commission actions

The European Commission said on Friday it is negotiating intensely to build a diversified portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines at fair prices.

Contracts have been concluded with  AstraZeneca (400 million doses), Sanofi-GSK (300 million doses),  Johnson and Johnson (doses covering 400 million people),  BioNTech-Pfizer (300 million doses),  CureVac (405 million doses) and  Moderna (160 million doses).

Member states also have the option to donate vaccines to lower- and middle-income countries.

In response to public health threats such as the current pandemic, the European Union has a specific regulatory tool in place to allow early availability of medicines for use in emergency situations.

In such emergency situations, the Conditional Marketing Authorization procedure is specifically designed to enable marketing authorizations as quickly as possible, as soon as sufficient data becomes available.

So far, the European Medicines Agency has received applications for a conditional marketing authorization from two vaccine developers: BioNTech and Pfizer, and Moderna.

The EMA is assessing the safety, efficacy and quality of the vaccines.

If the EMA gives a positive recommendation, the Commission can proceed with the authorization of the vaccine on the EU market.

A full Questions and Answers explains the process of the conditional marketing authorization and is available  here.