AstraZeneca to Supply Europe With 400 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses

AstraZeneca has reached an agreement with Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance to provide up to 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine at no profit starting by the end of the year.

The alliance, led by the governments of France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, looks to hasten Europe’s access to AZD1222, which AstraZeneca is licensing from the University of Oxford.

No financial details were disclosed, but it’s anticipated that European governments will provide funding to help offset manufacturing costs, the company said.

The drugmaker noted that it is still ramping up its manufacturing capacities to meet global demand and is open to working with more organizations and companies to improve supply of the vaccine.

The pharma titan has struck deals previously that will see it provide hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to the U.S., the UK and low- and middle-income nations. For example, it recently inked separate deals with the Serum Institute of India and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)/Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to manufacture and distribute a total of 1.3 billion doses (DID, June 5).

Last month, Oxford University began a phase 2/3 trial of the vaccine in the UK in approximately 10,000 adult volunteers. More late-stage trials are due to start in a number of countries, the company said, though it did not specify the timing.

Soriot said that the company is working on vaccine supply arrangements with the governments of Brazil, China, Japan and Russia as it gears up to publish results from its first phase of clinical trials.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has also given its blessing to the company to begin phase 3 vaccine studies, he said. — James Miessler