Portugal pays 11.2 million euros to guarantee vaccines

The Portuguese Government has authorized the payment of 11.2 million euros to the European Commission’s emergency fund, which is ensuring the production of covid-19 vaccines and sufficient supplies from all Member States.

The Member States of the European Union subscribed to the strategy for covid-19 vaccines and jointly secured a financing of 750 million euros. Each country’s contribution was calculated based on gross national income.  The initial purchase will be 200 million doses with the option to purchase an additional 100 million. The expense will apparently be covered later, with European subsidies from the Recovery Plan for Europe (REACT-EU).

These agreements are all part of the European Commission’s vaccine strategy and will allow all Member States to be supplied at the same time, shortly after the vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The first vaccine to receive the green light from EMA should be that of BioNTech-Pfizer, on the 29th of December. The doses should arrive in Portugal a few days later and the vaccination process should start in the first few weeks of January, as the coordinator of the Health Plan has already stated. 

Agreements are also confirmed with five other pharmaceutical companies: AstraZeneca, for the purchase of 300 million doses, with the option to purchase an additional 100 million doses; Sanofi-GSK, for the purchase of up to 300 million doses; Janssen, of the Johnson & Johnson group, for the purchase of 200 million doses, with the possibility of acquiring an additional 200 million; CureVac for the purchase of 225 million doses, with the possibility of purchasing an additional 180 million, and Moderna for an initial purchase of 80 million doses and the option to purchase an additional 80 million.

Moderna’s vaccine is expected to be the second to be approved by the EMA, on January 12.

Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/