BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium is in talks with U.S.-based Merck & Co Inc to buy 10,000 doses of its COVID-19 antiviral pill jointly developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the country’s federal health minister said on Wednesday.
“But we are in favour of a European joint procurement,” health minister Franck Vandenbroucke told a news conference, adding that the Belgian bilateral talks would be integrated in the European Union joint procurement if and when it is launched.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss, editing by Robin Emmott)
