The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) announced that it is conducting an investigation into the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19 in the European Union.
The authority which is responsible for investigations and prosecutions of crimes against the EU budget, announced that it has started an investigation into the joint provision of COVID-19 vaccines by the European Commission on behalf of EU countries.
The prosecution announced that the investigation is currently ongoing and that this carries “an extremely high public interest”.
The EC in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic provided vaccines in large quantities from several drug and vaccine manufacturers. The EC made its largest agreement for the provision of vaccines against COVID-19 with Pfizer-BioNTech.
The EU has an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for a total of 2.4 billion doses on behalf of member countries, reports Anadolu Agency (AA).
The cost of the deals is not officially declared because it is a trade secret. The EU also provides vaccines from companies such as Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson.
It is noted that since the end of 2021, the EU has made agreements worth 71 billion dollars for a total of 4.6 billion doses of vaccines.