The European Commission signed preliminary contracts with these companies last week, but they still need to be approved by EU member states. The EC and the two companies agreed on the acquisition of 200 million coronavirus vaccines, as well as on the reservation of another 100 million doses.
Outgoing Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga said this is the fourth vaccine that Lithuania wants to purchase jointly with other countries.
Gytis Andrulionis, head of Lithuania's State Medicines Control Agency, told BNS earlier that Lithuania could be allocated 620,000 doses out the additionally reserved vaccines.
Earlier, Lithuania made decisions to buy 1.86 million vaccines from AstraZeneca, 1.24 million doses form Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (Lithuania now wants this amount to be reduced to 700,000), and another 1.5 million vaccines from Sanofi and GSK.
Moreover, the Lithuanian Cabinet also decided earlier that Lithuania would join other EU member states for the acquisition of all COVID-19 vaccines under development the European Commission is holding negotiations on right now.
The Lithuanian government says it wants to acquire enough vaccines to immunize 70 percent of the country's population.
US biotech company Moderna announced on Monday that its experimental vaccine offers 94.5 percent protection from the coronavirus, based on the company's clinical trials that involved over 30,000 people.
A week earlier, BioNTech and Pfizer announced that their vaccine offers a similar protection level of 90 percent.