As of this morning – Monday June 15 – the current recorded case count for COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the UK has hit 295,889 with 41,698 deaths.
AstraZeneca has agreed with Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance (IVA) that it will supply up to 400 million doses of the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine to broaden access in the region.
The deal, which will see deliveries start by the end of this year, allows the IVA aims to accelerate the supply of the vaccine and to make it available to other European countries that wish to participate in the initiative.
“This agreement will ensure that hundreds of millions of Europeans have access to Oxford University’s vaccine following approval,” said Pascal Soriot, AZ’ chief executive.
“With our European supply chain due to begin production soon, we hope to make the vaccine available widely and rapidly. I would like to thank the governments of Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands for their commitment and swift response.”
AstraZeneca is currently working on establishing a number of supply chains in parallel across the world, including for Europe, with total manufacturing capacity currently at two billion doses.
Oxford University has recently begun testing AZD1222 in a Phase II/III UK trial involving around 10,000 adult volunteers, and other late-stage trials are due to begin in a number of countries.
