Joan Collins
Question:769. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Health if his Department or the HSE is contacting the pharmaceutical industry to acquire booster vaccines for autumn 2021 to respond to Covid-19 variants. [9438/21]
View answerWednesday, 24 February 2021
Questions (769)
Written answers
Ireland is participating in a Procurement Exercise being operated by the European Commission on behalf of Member States to procure suitable, safe and effective vaccines, in sufficient quantities, to combat COVID-19. Six Advance Purchase Agreements (APA) have been negotiated by the Commission under this process to date. Ireland has opted-in to five APAs to secure vaccine supplies: BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen/J&J and CureVac. Government approval has been obtained to opt-into the sixth APA (GSK/Sanofi Pasteur), subject to the outcome of future clinical trial results.
Ireland has opted-in to pro rata allocation of BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Ireland has also secured additional doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine via options and top up contracts, which will bring the current total of BioNTech/Pfizer doses secured to 5.49 million doses. Ireland has signalled interest in obtaining 1.64 million additional doses of the Moderna vaccine through a top-up contract.
Ireland now expects to receive a total of 1.2 million doses of the three approved vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca) from the start of the vaccination programme to the end of March.
Ireland has also indicated its intention to opt-in to additional APAs with Valneva and Novavax vaccines.
Overall, Ireland has opted-in to contracts for a total of 18.5m doses.
The new European bio-defence preparedness plan against COVID-19 variants called “HERA Incubator” will work with researchers, biotech companies, manufacturers and public authorities in the EU and globally to detect new variants, provide incentives to develop new and adapted vaccines, speed up the approval process for these vaccines, and ensure scaling up of manufacturing capacities.