The Netherlands, together with Germany, France, and Italy, is purchasing 300 million doses of a British coronavirus vaccine that has yet to be proven effective and safe. The minister stated, "We prefer not to disclose how much money is involved in the British deal."
The vaccine is being developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Initial tests have already been conducted and their results are expected soon. Initially, there were high hopes for the vaccine, but these have been tempered since trials with monkeys were disappointing.
From the European Union, there is criticism of the way these four EU countries effectively bypass and ignore the EU's efforts. The EU has also been working for weeks to strengthen its position in the (international) pharmaceutical market.
The idea to take a leap forward with the 'front-runner group' originated when Minister De Jonge was on a working visit to his German counterpart Jens Spahn. The ministers found that cooperation through the European Union sometimes takes too long. "We thought: actually we need to accelerate. So we took the step forward."
De Jonge finds it "very strange" that criticism followed from the European Commission and, for example, neighboring Belgium. The four countries emphasize that all EU member states will be able to participate later. "We are doing this in the European spirit," says De Jonge. "They could have also said thank you."
Belgian Minister of Health Maggie De Block called it "unwise" that countries negotiate outside of the European Commission. This fragments everything again and weakens everyone: both the overarching initiative of the Commission and your own position, De Block responded. The EU itself wants to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies about vaccine purchases and reacted negatively to the cooperation between the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Italy.
De Block said the European initiative goes much further than that of the Dutch-German-French-Italian front-runner group. The Commission is negotiating with multiple manufacturers. "And that will be necessary, because it is still impossible to predict who will find a vaccine first and whether that company can then produce the vaccine in sufficiently large quantities." The Dutch minister said he is also in talks with eight other manufacturers.