Coronavirus: the Inter-Ministerial Conference on Public Health agrees on the European procurement procedure for Moderna vaccine candidate and finalizes COVID-19 vaccination strategy

date: 02/12/2020

The Inter-Ministerial Conference (IMC) on Public Health held another meeting today to discuss the different aspects of approach of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Belgium agrees on procurement of Moderna vaccine candidate

The European Commission is conducting negotiations on behalf of the Member States for procurement procedures for COVID-19 vaccines and is submitting contracts to the Member States. In Belgium, the Advisory Committee responsible for the analysis of the procurement files issued a positive recommendation for Moderna's vaccine candidate. The IMC has followed this recommendation. Belgium will buy the vaccine if a marketing authorisation is granted.

The European contract covers the purchase of 80 million doses, including 2 million for Belgium. Mid-November 2020, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) began the rolling review of this vaccine candidate. On 1 December 2020, Pfizer/BioNTech submitted an application for a conditional marketing authorisation to the EMA. The advisory procedure on procurement is independent from the procedure for the granting of a marketing authorisation for a vaccine. The latter remains under the remit of the EMA in cooperation with the national competent authorities. If no marketing authorisation is granted by the EMA for this vaccine, the contract will be terminated. Currently, the EMA has not yet granted any authorisation for a vaccine COVID-19 vaccine.

Mid-August 2020, the Advisory Committee issued a positive recommendation for the contract for the vaccine candidate of AstraZeneca and Oxford University and in November 2020 for the vaccine candidate developed by Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Pfizer/BioNTech and CureVac.

The COVID-19 vaccination strategy is being finalised
The taskforce "operationalisation of the COVID-19 vaccination strategy" of the Government's Corona Commission is finalizing the vaccination strategy. The strategy for the vaccination programme will be presented tomorrow at an additional IMC meeting. The size and the complexity of the programme is unique for our country and will require the commitment of many actors and resources. Tomorrow, the IMC will also decide on priority groups, the phases, the distribution of tasks between ministers, the logistical aspects regarding the organisation of this mass vaccination and the organisation of communication.

This press release was written on behalf of the Ministers of the Inter-Ministerial Conference on Public Health:

  • Wouter Beke – Flemish Government, IMC chairman
  • Frank Vandenbroucke - Federal Government
  • Christie Morreale - Walloon Government
  • Valérie Glatigny - Government of the French Community
  • Bénédicte Linard - Government of the French Community
  • Alain Maron - Joint Community Commission and French Community Commission
  • Elke Van den Brandt - Joint Community Commission and Flemish Community Commission
  • Antonios Antoniadis - Government of the German-speaking Community
  • Pedro Facon, Government Commissioner for Corona.

The Interministerial Conference on Public Health is organised and supported by the Directorate-General Healthcare of the federal public service Public Health.

Last updated on 04/12/2020