Following Israel’s announcement on Friday on the signing of an agreement with Pfizer to purchase eight million COVID-19 vaccine doses, a Globes report on Sunday said that Israel is also holding talks with British company AstraZeneca to acquire its vaccine.

AstraZeneca is currently carrying out an FDA-approved Phase III trial of its COVID-19 AZD1222 vaccine in the UK and other countries. The company voluntarily paused its US trial in September due to safety concerns but following an FDA review, US trials were authorized to resume and will do so next month, along with a Johnson & Johnson trial which was paused for similar reasons.

Israel is making active efforts to secure any possible vaccine, with talks with AstraZeneca following deals with Pfizer, Moderna, Arcturus and Russia.

The Israeli government established a team to follow the progress of all companies around the world developing coronavirus vaccines, with findings reported to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. Netanyahu’s approach is to pursue agreements with every company that shows promise toward delivering a successful vaccine, with the goal of acquiring enough vaccines for all Israelis.

“The principle is simple,” Netanyahu explained last week. “Buy as many options as possible from as many companies as possible. The cost of buying vaccines is negligible, compared to the cost of not bringing them. The cost of throwing money in the trash, if the vaccines are unsuccessful, is minimal compared to not having vaccines.”

AstraZeneca is developing its vaccine in cooperation with the University of Oxford and is firstly committed to serving the needs of the British population and has also signed agreements with the EU and the US, and has granted a production license to a company in India. The company has stated that following proof of its vaccine’s effectiveness and safety, it is aiming to produce about three billion vaccines.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)