With national governments racing to nail down doses of a Covid-19 vaccine – when it comes – for their own populations, the EU’s leadership is keen to make sure that its own drugmakers don’t peddle their life-saving wares exclusively to other countries.

Citing an internal memo, Bloomberg reported that the European Commission has asked member states for permission to create a dedicated body such as the US emergency preparedness agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) that could negotiate development and make deals with drugmakers.

The EU is expected to unveil more information about the plan this week. The Commission is already raising funds for a potential manufacturing scale-up, the news agency said.

BARDA has already promised billions of dollars in financing to pharma and biotech companies to develop Covid-19 vaccines, therapies and diagnostics in return for access to supplies.  

First to sign agreements were Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Moderna, followed most recently by AstraZeneca, which took the lion’s share of funding so far with a $1.2 billion deal to supply the vaccine being developed at Oxford University – a project the UK is already pouring millions into.

Sanofi’s CEO, Paul Hudson, last month made negative headlines in Europe with statements that due to the subsidies, the US would be most likely to have first dibs on any successful vaccine it develops with BARDA.  At the same time, he suggested that EU countries would stand better chances if the union established an agency in line with the US model.

At a recent donor conference, the EU attempted to drum up support for a vaccine to be made available universally, but the US refused to even attend, much less discuss the subject. In the meantime, the US and the UK are injecting enormous sums of money into vaccine manufacturers’ research projects, with output presumably to be provided to their own populations.

Parallel to the pan-European approach, Agence France Presse (AFP) has reported that four European countries – Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France – have already agreed to establish a vaccine pact of their own, to be called the “Inclusive Vaccine Alliance,” with the aim of producing a vaccine on European soil.

Quoting a statement by the Dutch government, the AFP said the governments are in talks with relevant companies and “are convinced that a successful result requires a joint strategy and investments.”

According to the World Health Organization, 10 Covid-19 vaccines are currently in human trials and more than 120 are in preclinical testing.

The US government last week announced the five finalists in its Operation Warp Seed scheme that has the aim of delivering safe and effective coronavirus vaccines to Americans by the end of the year. On the list are Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca.

All of the companies except, reportedly, Pfizer have secured federal funding. Despite having funding, Sanofi was conspicuously absent from the chosen companies.