BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union governments have agreed to order over 180 million doses of an adapted version against Omicron of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, the head of the European Commission said.
But Pfizer said it was not aware of the order.
The EU drugs regulator has so far said that there is no evidence that adapted vaccines are needed against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
“The Member States have agreed to trigger a first tranche of over 180 million extra doses of adapted vaccines, in our third contract with BioNTech-Pfizer,” Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference last night at the end of a regular summit with EU leaders.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; additional reporting by Pushkala Aripaka)
