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Statement given yesterday by President von der Leyen on CureVac.

The coronavirus continues to spread rapidly across Europe. We need a safe and effective vaccine to end this pandemic. A few days after our contract with BioNTech and Pfizer, I am happy to announce a new agreement. Tomorrow, we will authorise a new contract to secure another COVID-19 vaccine for Europeans. This contract allows us to buy up to 405 million doses of a vaccine produced by the European company CureVac.

Earlier this year, we have provided funding to CureVac, together with the European Investment Bank. We did that to support the development of this vaccine. And now, progress is tangible. If the vaccine has proven safe and effective against COVID-19, every Member State will receive the vaccine at the same time, on a pro-rata basis, and under the same conditions.

This is the fifth contract with a pharmaceutical company for our COVID-19 vaccine portfolio. And we are working on a sixth one, with Moderna. We have already concluded exploratory talks with Moderna. We hope to finalise the contract soon.

We do not know at this stage, which vaccines will end up being safe and effective. The European Medicines Agency EMA will authorise them only after a robust assessment. This is why we need to have a broad portfolio of vaccines based on very different technologies. In parallel, we are working with COVAX to provide access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries. Thus, we want to ensure that all have access rapidly to safe and effective vaccines.

Thank you very much.