The contract is for 400 million doses of the vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford and whose experimentation phase is already advanced and expected to end in autumn, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
He added that the first batch of doses would be made available by the end of this year.
The European Commission received a mandate from EU governments on Friday to negotiate advance purchases of promising coronavirus vaccines, the EU’s top health official said, but it was unclear whether there would be enough money available.
With the laboratories trying to find a vaccine in record time – 12 to 18 months instead of several years in normal times – these advance payments allow them to invest in production, even though the clinical trials on humans have not yet been finalised.
This commitment would give member states the right to buy doses at a certain price once the vaccine is available, in return for the risk taken in terms of investments.
While the vaccine has not yet proven effective, AstraZeneca is manufacturing millions of doses just in case and expects to deliver them in Europe by the end of 2020.
The company has similar agreements with various countries, including a billion-dose deal with India.
It comes as major pharmaceutical groups are engaged in a race to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, which has so far killed more than 417,000 people and infected more than 7.4 million worldwide.
