Pfizer and BioNTech said Monday that their COVID-19 vaccine was shown to be more than 90% effective.DADO RUVIC/Reuters
German Health Minister Jens Spahn expects the European Commision to sign a purchase agreement with BioNTech and its partner Pfizer for its potential vaccine against COVID-19 “in the coming days.”
“We will now bring this to a speedy conclusion,” Spahn told a news conference in Berlin. “We expect to conclude a contract in the next few days.”
The European Commission is in final stage talks with BioNTech-Pfizer over the supply of 200 million doses of their potential COVID-19 shot, with an option to buy another 100 million.
Spahn said he expects Germany will get up to 100 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine.
COVID-19 news: Updates and essential resources about the pandemic
Is my city going back into lockdown? A guide to COVID-19 rules across Canada
The companies said on Monday their vaccine was shown to be more than 90 per cent effective, a major victory in the war against a virus that has killed over a million people and battered the world’s economy.
Spahn reiterated that he does not expect the vaccine to be available before the first quarter of 2021 but added that he expected it to get approved quickly.
Spahn said news about the vaccine “was a light at the end of the tunnel” and raised the hope that next winter would not be as bad as this one.
He said the European Union was pursuing an extraordinary rolling review process meant to speed up approval of the shot, but stressed that this did not mean that standards would be lowered.
Pfizer said its experimental vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on initial data from a large study, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed over 1 million people.
Reuters
Be smart with your money. Get the latest investing insights delivered right to your inbox three times a week, with the Globe Investor newsletter. Sign up today.