MILAN (Reuters) – The European Commission has decided not to extend the COVID-19 vaccine contracts with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) next year, Italian daily La Stampa reported on Wednesday, citing a source from the Italian Ministry of Health.
“The European Commission, in agreement with the leaders of many (EU) countries, has decided that the contracts with the companies producing (viral vector) vaccines that are valid for the current year will not be renewed,” the newspaper said. said. report.
It added that Brussels would rather focus on COVID-19 vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technologies, such as Pfizer and Moderna.
An EU Commission spokesman said he kept all options open to be prepared for the next phases of the pandemic, for 2022 and beyond.
“However, we can not comment on contractual matters,” the spokesman added.
Later on Wednesday, the president of the European Commission said that the EU was in talks with Pfizer and BionTech about a new contract for 1.8 billion doses, which was confirmed by a report from Reuters last week.
‘We need to focus on technologies that have proven their worth. mRNA vaccines are a clear example, ‘she added.
The Italian Ministry of Health declined to comment.
An EU official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia, additional reporting by Emilio Parodi in Milan and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, edited by Jane Merriman