President von der Leyen on the authorisation of the contract for vaccines with Pfizer and BioNTech

Statement by President von der Leyen on 10 November, 2020 |

“A safe and effective vaccine is our best chance to beat coronavirus and return to our normal lives.

In the past months, the European Commission has been working tirelessly to secure doses of potential vaccines.

And tomorrow we authorise a contract for up to 300 million doses of the vaccine developed by German company BioNTech and Pfizer. This is the most promising vaccine so far.

Once this vaccine becomes available, our plan is to deploy it quickly, everywhere in Europe. This will be the fourth contract with a pharmaceutical company to buy vaccines. And more will come. Because we need to have a broad portfolio of vaccines based on different technologies.

We have already started working with Member States to prepare national vaccination campaigns.

We are almost there. In the meantime, let us be prudent, and stay safe.”

Compliments of the European Commission.