Last March, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the coronavirus outbreak had become a global pandemic. Today, not even a year later, three vaccines against the virus were authorised in the EU. And there are more to come.
Normally, the development of a vaccine takes around 10 years. This time, it took us just 10 months. The first vaccine against COVID-19 authorised in Europe was also invented here and is being poduced at a large scale within the EU. Through our advance purchase agreements, we gave vaccine developers upfront payments, not only to build up capacity to manufacture at scale but also to produce vaccine doses for us. So that they could deliver right away, from the moment the vaccine is authorised.
We invested €2.9 billion upfront, not to mention the many billions of euros that Europe invests every year in a research ecosystem that makes such successes possible. European citizens will receive the benefits of this European investment.
Altogether, the EU secured 2.3 billion doses of these vaccines for its citizens and its neighbourhood. This was the right approach: staying united in our fight against the virus, working at the European level to tackle a virus that knows no borders.
From the very start, we wanted every member state, no matter how big or small, to have fair access to the vaccines. Just imagine what might have happened if only one or two member states had access to the vaccines, which was a very real possibility without our collective negotiating power. What would have that meant for the single market and for our unity in Europe?
Instead, the commission worked hand-in-hand with all 27 national governments. Starting last June, we formed a steering board with the member states. There is a constant flow of information and all decisions are taken together. After screening more than 100 companies, which at the time were researching a vaccine, we soon developed a portfolio of the six most promising ones.
Last summer, nobody knew who in the end would be the front runner. Today we know: the European approach was the right choice. Now we have three authorised vaccines, and the three companies, BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna and Astra Zeneca started to deliver. And more vaccines are under development and might be submitted for approval soon.
Today, many of those who criticise our European approach speak about a lack of speed in decision-making. But could we have been much faster? Would a single member state have been faster or an earlier contract a guarantee of earlier delivery in large quantities? We honestly do not think so.
Producing a new vaccine is an incredibly complex and sensitive task. All three vaccine manufacturers that were successful so far had to significantly reduce their deliveries for the start-up phase. This is due to problems in the production process or because important ingredients were in short supply.
After all, inoculating means injecting a biological active substance in a healthy person. Safety and efficacy are of the essence.
We are together in this fight and we need to stay united
This is why we did not take shortcuts in the authorisation process with the European Medicine Agency (EMA). This process, which takes three to four weeks, was an investment in trust. And this explains, for instance, why we started slightly later than the UK and, thus, the current difference in the number of vaccinations.
In the EU, we started vaccination at the end of December. Now, five weeks later, companies have already delivered around 20 million vaccine doses to the EU. Malta is also receiving its share of vaccines that allow it to roll out its inoculation programme efficiently. To date, in Malta, more than 27,000 citizens have received the vaccination.
This is not yet enough. But it is not insignificant either. In February, EU countries will receive around 33 million doses in addition and, in March, 55 million. In the second quarter of 2021, by conservative estimates, there should be 300 million additional doses delivered.
We understand that some companies have problems with mass production. After all, a production increase like this is unprecedented. Just recently, the CEO of one company told us that, in 2019, his company had produced 100,000 doses of vaccines. This year they plan to produce one billion. This is an exponential increase. We commend these efforts.
But we also need transparency as to where these vaccines are going. This is especially true when a company does not deliver on what it has promised to the European Union. This is the reason why we introduced a transparency and authorisation mechanism: to have an overview of what has been exported and what will be exported.
We have no intention to put restrictions on companies which honour their contracts – we just authorised two shipments to Canada and one shipment to the UK. But if a company tells us that they can’t deliver on their EU orders, then it is only right that we know what they are delivering to others.
While we are fighting the virus, it keeps changing. We are worried about new variants, even if we are reassured that our vaccines seem to combat them for now. But having learned our lessons, we want to prepare for a scenario when the virus does not respond to the current vaccines anymore.
This is why we convened the CEOs of vaccine companies and scientists some days ago. We agreed to carefully monitor how the virus develops, to make sure that this data is shared with the companies and with EMA.
We want to work closely together with scientists and the industry, to be ready to develop, authorise and quickly produce vaccines that can address the variants too. And, most importantly, we want to scale up manufacturing capacities in Europe.
Our responsibility does not end at Europe’s borders. It does not end when most European adults have been vaccinated. This is why from the very first day we called for a global response to the pandemic. The commission organised two pledging sessions that raised €16 billion. And we helped to set up the Covax facility to make sure that high-income countries invest in vaccine supply for low- and middle-income countries.
Together with the member states as Team Europe, we are one of the largest contributors to Covax with €870 million.
This pandemic is a difficult moment for Europe and the world. We are together in this fight and we need to stay united – against our common enemy, the virus.
Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission. Helena Dalli is European Commissioner for Equality.