By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Pfizer and German partner BioNTech will deliver 75 million extra doses of their COVID-19 vaccine in the second quarter of the year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday, repeating information she gave earlier this month.
“BioNTech/Pfizer will deliver 75 million of additional doses in the second quarter of the year – and up to 600 millions in total in 2021,” von der Leyen wrote on Twitter after a furore last week over an overall shortfall of doses for the bloc.
The additional Pfizer-BioNTech doses are part of a deal the EU announced on Jan. 8.
BioNTech and Pfizer this month raised their supply goal for this year to 2 billion doses, up from a previous aim of 1.3 billion.
The firm has said 500 million doses would be available to the EU by the end of this year, and an option for another 100 million could be taken up.
Each recipient of the Pfizer vaccine needs two doses to develop maximum protection.
The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, Britain and the United States in rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to get supplies of vaccines for its 450 million people, just as the West’s biggest drugmakers slow deliveries to the bloc due to production problems.
(The story corrects to reflect increased Pfizer and BioNTech supply goal)
(Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Marine Strauss and Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Louise Heavens)
