The advanced purchase agreement is the seventh signed by the Commission for the Sars-CoV2 vaccine, after AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Biontech-Pfizer, CureVac and Moderna. The Commission has also concluded exploratory talks with Valneva.

In addition to the 100 million Novavax  doses available to purchase, the Commission has the option to purchase 100 million more. Novavax is a biotechnology firm whose Sars-CoV-2 vaccine is under rolling review by the European Medicines Agency. The Commission said it supported the vaccine “based on a sound scientific assessment, the technology used, the company's experience in vaccine development and its production capacity to supply the whole of the EU.”

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “As new coronavirus variants are spreading in Europe and around the world, this new contract with a company that is already testing its vaccine successfully against these variants is an additional safeguard for the protection of our population. It further strengthens our broad vaccine portfolio, to the benefit of Europeans and our partners worldwide.”

At the time of writing, , equivalent to 217 million. The EU target is 70%.