Europe To Spend $240Mln On COVID-19 New Variant Diagnostics, EU Commission

Europe to Spend $240Mln on COVID-19 New Variant Diagnostics, EU Commission

The European Commission plans to allocate 200 million euros ($241 million) to the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) Incubator in order to improve diagnostics of new COVID-19 variants in member states and help with the production of vaccines against them, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides stated on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2021) The European Commission plans to allocate 200 million Euros ($241 million) to the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) Incubator in order to improve diagnostics of new COVID-19 variants in member states and help with the production of vaccines against them, European Commissioner for Health and food Safety Stella Kyriakides stated on Monday.

"200 million will be dedicated in our HERA Incubator to help all Member States step up diagnostics. More genomic sequencing, multiplex PCR tests and wastewater screening are a must for the coming months," she said during a videoconference of EU health ministers.

Kyriakides stressed the need to increase the efficiency and speed of testing. To this end, the EC has spent over 100 million euros ($120 million) from the Emergency Support Instrument to buy 20 million rapid antigen tests and set up joint procurement exercise to procure another 550 million. The deliveries are expected to start later in the week, the commissioner stated.

"The HERA Incubator will build on these reinforced diagnostic efforts. Through our sequencing, we will be building a library of variants. We will share this information with industry, in order to focus their efforts on producing variant vaccines," Kyriakides noted.

According to the commissioner, the European Medicines Agency is working on streamlining regulatory procedures to ensure quick production of the variant vaccines and their roll-out in Europe.