EU keeps expanding future vaccine portfolio

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the European Commission has concluded exploratory talks with CureVac to purchase a potential vaccine against COVID-19.

Kyriakides on Thursday re-tweeted a statement by EU Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (SANTE), which said exploratory talks with CureVac concluded earlier around noon.

The news came following what the Commission described as positive steps in “expanding future vaccines portfolio” after talks with Sanofi-GSK on 31 July and Johnson & Johnson on 13 August as well as the signature of an Advance Purchase Agreement with AstraZeneca on 14 August.

An expected contract with CureVac would provide for the possibility for all EU Member States to purchase the vaccine while also donating to lower and middle income countries or re-directing to European countries.

The Commission said it was pursuing intensive discussions with other vaccine manufacturers and it was anticipated that a contractual framework would be in place for an initial purchase of 225 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19.

“Today we concluded talks with the European company CureVac to increase the chances of finding an effective coronavirus vaccine. We continue to work shoulder to shoulder with Member States and with vaccine developers to fulfill the aims of our European Vaccines Strategy - a vaccine for all,” Kyriakides said.

Thursday’s conclusion of exploratory talks were intended to result in an Advance Purchase Agreement to be financed with the Emergency Support Instrument, which has funds dedicated to the creation of a portfolio of potential vaccines with different profiles and produced by different companies.

Delivering on a promise

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, said the a promise was being delivered against the coronavirus.

“The European Commission delivers on its promise to secure rapid access for Europeans and the world to a safe vaccine that protects us against the coronavirus. Each round of talks that we conclude with the pharmaceutical industry brings us closer to beating this virus.”

CureVac is a European company pioneering the development of a completely new class of vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA), transported into cells by lipid nanoparticles.

The vaccine platform has been developed over the last decade. The basic principle is the use of this molecule as a data carrier for information, with the help of which the body itself can produce its own active substances to combat various diseases.