Report: EU, Pfizer/Biontech to amend COVID vaccine contract

Brussels has agreed with Pfizer and BioNTech to amend a COVID-19 vaccines contract, cutting the number the EU must buy and pushing the delivery deadline to 2026, a source with knowledge of the talks said.

The agreement comes after months of talks and amid pressure on Brussels from EU governments to secure a change to the contract due to the global glut of COVID-19 shots.

The original contract was signed in May 2021 and committed the EU to buy 900 million vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech, with an option for an additional 900 million doses, by the end of 2023.

Around half or more of the first 900 million doses from that contract have not yet been delivered because demand dropped last year. The EU has not exercised the additional option.

The amendment to the contract reduces by about one-third the number of those remaining doses that the EU is on the hook to buy, the source said.

But the EU will have to pay a fee for each of those cancelled doses, the source said, declining to say what that fee will be.