Terms of the advance purchase agreement, which followed the European Commission’s approval on behalf of all EU member States, were not disclosed. The EU also has an option to buy an additional 200 million doses from the vaccine program that leverages Janssen’s AdVac technology, which was used to develop an EU-approved Ebola vaccine as well as to construct its HIV, RSV and Zika vaccine candidates.

J&J said it also is in talks with other stakeholders, including national governments and global organizations, about making make its vaccine candidate accessible globally, provided it has a good safety profile, is efficacious and receives approval or authorization from regulators.

In August, the company agreed to supply the US with 100 million doses priced at $10 each. Under a project receiving advanced funding from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the drugmaker said it is providing its vaccines initially on a non-profit basis. It has also agreed to make its vaccine available to low-income countries at a favorable price.

The European Commission already has supply agreements with AstraZeneca and the Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline partnership, along with Moderna, CureVac and the Pfizer-BioNTech duo. It is said to be negotiating with several of the companies about additional doses. Additionally, Novavax is believed to be close to its first agreement with the bloc. All told, the EU looks to have secured supply of more than 1 billion potential Covid -19 vaccine doses.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist