The European Commission on Thursday concluded exploratory talks with European company CureVac to purchase a potential vaccine against covid-19. The expected contractual framework would result in an initial purchase of 225 million doses on behalf of all EU member states, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective.

“Each round of talks that we conclude with the pharmaceutical industry brings us closer to beating this virus,” said commission president Ursula von der Leyen. “We will soon have an agreement with CureVac, the innovative European firm that received earlier EU funding to produce a vaccine in Europe.”

In July the European Investment Bank and CureVac signed a €75 million loan agreement for the development and large-scale production of vaccines, including CureVac's vaccine candidate against covid-19. Over the past decade, CureVac has been pioneering the development of a completely new class of vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA), transported into cells by lipid nanoparticles. “The basic principle is the use of this molecule as a data carrier for information, with the help of which the body itself can produce its own active substances to combat various diseases,” a statement from the commission claims.

Just last week, on 14 August, the commission signed an advance purchase agreement for covid-19 vaccine with AstraZeneca. Talks have also taken place in the past three weeks with Sanofi-GSK and Johnson & Johnson.

Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for health and food safety, said: “We continue to work shoulder to shoulder with Member States and with vaccine developers to fulfil the aims of our European Vaccines Strategy - a vaccine for all.”