LONDON – Pharma giant AstraZeneca struck a deal Saturday with Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance to supply up to 400 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, as efforts to boost manufacturing capacity continue at pace.The alliance, which was forged by Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands to speed up production of a vaccine, is set to take delivery of the vaccine being tested by the University of Oxford by the end of 2020.
The agreement with AstraZeneca also aims to make the vaccine available to other European countries that wish to take part.The cost is expected to be offset by funding from the governments.“This agreement will ensure that hundreds of millions of Europeans have access to Oxford University’s vaccine.