EU, 화이자백신 1억회 추가주문…"아스트라제네카 1월보급 불가"<br /><br />The European Union is on track to secure more COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech,... which it describes as safe and effective.<br />This comes as the bloc is undergoing a mass vaccination program as many countries there are in a race against time to contain a new variant of the virus.<br />Kim Hyo-sun reports.<br />The European Union has placed an additional order to buy 1-hundred million more doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.<br />The President of the European Commission explained via Twitter on Tuesday that this brings the total vaccines from the two firms,... that have assessed to be safe and effective, to 3-hundred million doses.<br />The new order comes as some of the vaccine candidates ordered by the EU faced unexpected delays in clinical trials.<br />The bloc also said the extra 1-hundred million doses will be supplied at the same price as contracted previously.<br />Pfizer explained on the same day that all 3-hundred million doses are expected to be delivered by 2021.<br />The EU also expects to approve the vaccine developed by Moderna sometime next month.<br />It has placed an initial order of 80 million doses, with an option for 80 million more that will be exercised going forward.<br />Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency says it's unlikely to be able to approve the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in January.<br />The regulator explained no application has been filed for the vaccine yet,... adding that additional information on its quality will be needed for approval.<br />Last week, AstraZeneca said its vaccine should offer "1-hundred percent protection" against the new virus variant first found in Britain,... adding it's conducting further studies to confirm its efficacy.<br />Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.<br />
