EU taps Moderna for more Covid variant jabs
BRUSSELS, Belgium- The EU said Tuesday is has struck an agreement with Moderna to delay deliveries of Covid vaccines in order to boost the likelihood of receiving jabs against Omicron variants.
“Doses originally scheduled for delivery in the summer will now be delivered in September and during the autumn and winter period 2022,” the European Commission said in a statement.
That will be when the EU’s 27 member states will likely need more vaccine stocks, it said.
As part of the agreement, the commission, which handles pre-purchases of Covid vaccines for EU countries, “secures (an) additional 15 million doses of Omicron-containing vaccine booster candidates”.
The European Medicines Agency in June started examining a new generation of coronavirus mRNA vaccines from Moderna designed to tackle the original form of the virus as well as the Omicron variant which is behind a recent surge in infections.
Use of the new-generation jabs are subject to EMA giving its approval.