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European Union governments have agreed to exercise an option to buy more than 180 million doses of a version of the Covid-19 vaccine adapted for the Omicron variant developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, the head of the European Commission said.
Pfizer and BioNTech began development of a prototype Omicron-specific vaccine on November 25, and said they could have it ready in March, Reuters reports.
“The member states have agreed to trigger a first tranche of over 180 million extra doses of adapted vaccines, in our third contract with BioNTech-Pfizer,” Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference on Thursday night at the end of a regular summit with EU leaders.
