(Bloomberg) -- The European Union exercised its option for a further 100 million doses of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE's Covid-19 vaccine, raising its order from the companies to 600 million doses.
The boost makes the EU deal the partners' biggest yet, and they'll aim to deliver all the doses this year, Sean Marett, BioNTech's chief business and commercial officer, said in a statement. The option to buy an extra 100 million doses was part of a purchase agreement the 27-nation bloc signed with Pfizer and BioNTech in February.
Pfizer and BioNTech last week agreed to accelerate Covid vaccine deliveries to the EU by 25% this quarter, bringing forward shipment of 50 million doses that had originally been scheduled for the fourth quarter. The EU needs more shots from the U.S.-German alliance to offset challenges in the rollout of vaccines from AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson.
J&J put its shipments on hold while regulators review rare cases of blood clots in a few people who got its shot. Meanwhile, a number of EU countries have restricted use of the Astra shot due to a link with similar, but still very uncommon, cases of blood clotting combined with low blood platelets.
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