The European Commission has approved a third contract with a pharmaceutical company, Janssen Pharmaceutica, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
Once the vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19, the contract allows Member States to purchase vaccines for 200 million people. They will also have the possibility to purchase vaccines for an additional 200 million people.
Member States may also decide to donate the vaccine to lower and middle income countries or to re-direct it to other European countries.
The Commission has already signed a contract with AstraZeneca and with Sanofi-GSK and it concluded successful exploratory talks with CureVac, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “As the coronavirus continues to spread worryingly across Europe, it is crucial to find a vaccine, and fast. I’m glad that we have been able to find an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to purchase vaccines for 200 million people. This will be our third contract with a pharmaceutical company. Our aim is to provide EU citizens with safe and effective vaccines as soon as they are found.”
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “Ensuring a safe and effective vaccine is at the core of our European Vaccine Strategy. Today we have secured our third vaccine agreement, expanding our portfolio of vaccine candidates and therefore our chances to find an efficient remedy against the virus. More agreements will follow, and we remain determined in our search for a successful and safe vaccine to combat this deadly pandemic.”
The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate leverages the AdVac® technology platform, which was also used to develop and manufacture Janssen’s recently approved Ebola vaccine and the Zika, RSV, and HIV vaccine candidates. The vaccine candidate is already in phase III of clinical trials.
The Commission’s decision to support this vaccine is based on a sound scientific assessment, the technology used, the company’s experience in vaccine development and its production capacity to supply the whole of the EU.
