
EU orders nearly 40 million more J&J COVID vaccines
pharmafile | July 7, 2021 | News story | Research and Development |
The EU has ordered nearly 40 million more doses of the J&J COVID-19 vaccines for European countries.
This is despite the company’s delivery shortfalls in the last year.
EU nations initially ordered 200 million doses of the J&J vaccine and under the contract had the option to buy up to another 200 million shots.
This shows caution from the EU, as the order placed is far below what was possible under the contract.
J&J was expected to deliver 55 million doses to the EU in the second quarter of this year, but fell below that target. EU data show that by the end of June only about 15 million vaccines were shipped to the EU, as the company faced production problems.
As reported in Reuters, the EU spokesman declined to say whether the additional doses were to be used in the countries that bought them or would be donated to poorer nations outside the EU.
EU officials had told Reuters that J&J additional doses would be most likely channelled abroad.
The EU is largely relying on Pfizer-BioNTech to vaccinate its own population. It also plans to donate at least 100 million doses to poorer nations by the end of the year.
Lilly Subbotin





