Spain to buy 52 million vaccine doses from Janssen, Moderna and CureVac

A BULK purchase of 52 million doses of three different types of Covid vaccine has been authorised by Spain's national government.

As well as the Moderna inoculation, developed in the USA and set to be packaged for distribution in Spain once it gets the European Union's seal of approval – expected to be on January 12 at the latest – those created by laboratories Janssen and CureVac have been bought 'off-plan'.

These are in addition to the already-purchased Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines – the first of which will get the green light from the EU by December 29 at the outside, and the second of which has been created by Oxford University scientists.

Spain's purchase of the other three brands of the vaccine comes as part of a Europe-wide acquisition – so far, the European Commission has closed deals with seven pharmaceutical companies, of which Spain has signed up to five so far.

National minister for health Salvador Illa reported today (Tuesday) that the Commission will distribute vaccines in numbers that correspond with the populations of each member State, which will mean a total of 20,875,725 Janssen doses for Spain over the course of the year 2021.

Also throughout next year, Spain will get exactly 8,348,979 doses of the Moderna jab, of which two are needed per person, so just under 4.2 million residents in Spain will be able to receive it.

Out of the EU's 225 million doses of the CureVac inoculation, Spain will receive 23,483,184, and these will filter through from the first quarter of next year to the first quarter of 2022.

Like the Moderna jab, two are needed per person, so just over 11.7 million residents will be able to receive one.

The agreement to buy the 52 million doses was sealed during the Council of Ministers today, at the same time as the Treasury announced an increase in budget limits for the health ministry to fund them. 

Although there will now be enough – including with the first purchase – to vaccinate the whole of Spain twice over, the inoculation will probably have to be repeated annually, in the same way as the influenza injection, rather than providing lifetime immunity.