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EU to negotiate vaccine contract extension with Pfizer for an additional 1.8B doses through 2023

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BRUSSELS — The head of the European Union's executive arm has announced plans for a major contract extension for COVID-19 vaccines with Pfizer stretching to 2023.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that the EU will start negotiating to buy 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine through 2023.

The announcement came the same day that Denmark announced it will not resume the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, after reports that a handful of people who received it suffered rare and severe blood clots.

Pfizer has been a mainstay of the EU’s vaccination drive so far.

Von der Leyen expressed full confidence in the technology used for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.