Europe Prepares a Mutant Covid Vaccine Plan to Fight the Crisis
- European Commission will seek to accelerate variant research
- The EU will unveil a list of proposals Wednesday in Brussels
People wait outside booths at a Covid-19 vaccination center in Athens on Feb. 15.
Photographer: Yorgos Karahalis/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In an effort to get its inoculation drive on track, the European Union’s executive arm will vow to accelerate research, authorization, procurement and distribution for vaccines that fight variants of the coronavirus, while also asking member states for more money to back the drive.
The European Commission wants to adapt existing contracts and strike new purchase agreements with pharmaceutical companies to secure shots that protect against Covid-19 mutations, according to a draft proposal of the strategy seen by Bloomberg. The contracts will include safeguards to avoid earlier missteps that tarnished the current vaccine rollout.