BNTX BioNTech SE

   By Daniel Michaels 
 

The European Union, grappling with the potential loss of vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, will buy an additional 50 million doses of the Covid-19 shot from BioNTech and Pfizer Inc. for the current quarter and is in talks for up to 1.8 billion more doses over the next two years.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the new order will bring total deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the quarter from March through June to 250 million doses. The EU also expects 35 million doses from Moderna Inc. and 70 million doses from AstraZeneca PLC during the quarter.

J&J had been expected to deliver 55 million doses during the quarter, but that is now in question after the company suspended shipments this week due to concerns about possible links to rare blood clots.

J&J's vaccine requires only one shot, compared to two shots for all the others, so its deliveries had represented an even larger proportion of total effective vaccinations. Prior to Wednesday's announcement of new Pfizer-BioNTech deliveries, the J&J shots had accounted for between 15% and 25% of current-quarter vaccinations.

Write to Daniel Michaels at dan.michaels@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 14, 2021 08:25 ET (12:25 GMT)

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