Changes in the COVID-19 vaccine delivery schedule

The European Commission and Moderna have reached an agreement to meet Member States' demand for COVID-19 vaccines in late summer and winter. This will ensure that national authorities have access to vaccines, including vaccines adapted to the variants of the virus (as long as these vaccines are marketed), when they need them to carry out their own vaccination campaigns and to support their global partners.

Under this agreement, originally agreed delivery schedules will be modified. The doses originally scheduled for summer deliveries will be delivered in September and fall/winter 2022, when Member States are likely to need additional stocks of vaccines for national campaigns and to fulfill international commitments made in a spirit of solidarity.

The agreement also ensures that if at least one vaccine adapted to a virus variant obtains a marketing authorization, Member States will be able to choose to have these adapted vaccines under the current agreement.

In this context, at the request of some Member States, Moderna also contracted an additional 15 million doses of potential booster vaccines against the omicron variant under the agreement, provided that the vaccine obtained a marketing authorization in time to use these doses in the vaccination campaign.

- Increasing the number of COVID-19 primary and booster vaccinations will be critical to our plans for the fall and winter months. In order to best ensure our common preparedness, Member States must have the necessary tools at their disposal. This includes ensuring that the variant vaccines are available as they are authorized by the European Medicines Agency. This agreement will ensure that Member States have timely access to the doses of vaccines they need to protect their citizens, said Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

Source: European Commission