BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union reached a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for 300 million additional doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, doubling the amount of doses from these producers, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.
“The European Commission today proposed to the EU Member States to purchase an additional 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer, with the option to acquire another 100 million doses,” it said in a statement.
“This would enable the EU to purchase up to 600 million doses of this vaccine, which is already being used across the EU,” the statement said.
Von der Leyen said 75 million of the additional doses would be delivered in the second quarter of this year.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Jan Strupczewski @fraguarascio)
