AstraZeneca will provide Israel with approximately 10 million doses of its AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine for five million people.
By TPS
Israel will sign a contract with AstraZeneca to acquire the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine the company is developing.
On instruction from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, the Health Ministry has reached understandings with AstraZeneca and the final details are being closed ahead of the signing of an agreement for the acquisition of millions of vaccines against the coronavirus from AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
The agreement says that AstraZeneca will provide Israel with approximately 10 million doses of it AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine for five million people. The vaccine will be sold to Israel according to a non-profit model during the pandemic period. The agreement includes the supply of the largest quantity of vaccines that will come to Israel.
The first supply is expected to reach Israel in the first half of 2021 subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities in Europe, the US and Israel.
AstraZeneca is among the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world and has recently published encouraging results regarding the efficacy of the vaccine among the older population.
Israel is in advanced contacts with additional companies with the intention “that every citizen who wants to be vaccinated will be able to do so with vaccines from the leading companies in the world,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.
The citizens of Israel will not be required to be vaccinated, but every citizen will have the option to do so.
Israel has also signed contracts with Pfizer and Moderna.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the development as “an additional important achievement for the citizens of Israel. My policy is that whoever wants to be vaccinated will have the possibility of being vaccinated, Over-preparation is better than under-preparation.”
Health Minister Edelstein said that “a strategic effort of many long months has paid off. Today, the State of Israel has agreements with leading global companies. We set for ourselves the goal that every citizen who so desires will be able to be vaccinated. Thus, I hope that we will defeat the virus as quickly as possible.”
AstraZeneca plc is a Swedish-British multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Cambridge, England.
AstraZeneca Israel CEO Ohad Goldberg stated that “the company has built an unprecedented mass production system throughout the world in order to meet rapid and extensive production capabilities. At the same time, the company is continuing research in order to ensure the safety and efficacy of AZD1222.”
“We are proud of the company’s efforts, as well as those of the entire pharmaceutical industry, to help in saving lives by reducing the harsh socio-economic effects of this global pandemic,” he said.
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