EU seeks to secure vaccine materials from US
(VOVWORLD) - The EU will open talks with Washington Monday to ensure its supply of US-made materials for coronavirus vaccines, items currently under tough export restrictions, a European source said Saturday.
 Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine (Photo: AFP/VNA) |
Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton -- Brussels' pointman on vaccine production -- will confer with White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeffrey Zients, the source familiar with the talks told AFP.
The EU and US want to "work together in a coordinated way to avoid bottlenecks" for European vaccine producers, the source said.
The European Commission is planning to extend to June a vaccine export transparency mechanism, which will expire in March. The move came after Italy refused to permit 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to Australia through this mechanism.