EuroWire, BRUSSELS: The European Commission said it will invest €225 million to speed development of next-generation influenza vaccines designed to protect against a wider range of flu variants and to be adapted quickly if a pandemic strain emerges. The funding is focused on candidates that can be deployed more easily, including vaccines administered through the nose or mouth and options delivered through skin patches, and on approaches that can be produced and scaled up rapidly during outbreaks.
The Commission said the initiative is being financed through the EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority under the EU4Health programme and managed by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency. It uses a pre-commercial procurement model that funds research and development services for products not yet on the market and is structured to advance candidate vaccines through non-clinical work, clinical testing and pre-market development leading to market authorisation.
The agency said three new framework contracts were signed in February 2026 and will run for 98 months, with a total ceiling budget of €225 million across all phases and selected contractors. It said the procurement is organised in three sequential phases and will narrow the number of participating contractors as work progresses, with each phase tied to a specific contract under the framework and intended to move projects through increasingly complex development steps.
Procurement structure
The Commission said the supported work covers development of clinical trial phases I, II and III, as well as pre-market development, and applies safety, quality and efficacy requirements associated with clinical development. The procurement is intended to widen the vaccine development pipeline by supporting multiple candidates in parallel and helping move successful approaches from laboratory work into full clinical development, including vaccines that are more patient-friendly in how they are administered.
The Commission said contracts were signed with Nivi Development P/S, Ethris GmbH, Statens Serum Institut, Vismederi Srl, Stichting European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases, Bavarian Nordic A/S, Evonik Operations GmbH, IDT Biologika GmbH, Sanofi Pasteur SA and Sclavo Vaccines Association. It described the procurement as its first use of pre-commercial procurement to advance products through clinical trials and said the model is designed to support innovation, including among small and medium-sized enterprises.
Influenza burden
Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said the €225 million commitment is the EU’s largest investment dedicated to accelerating access to innovative medical countermeasures and said the funding will support cutting-edge technologies and more accessible vaccine administration methods. The Commission said the work is intended to strengthen Europe’s ability to respond at scale when influenza outbreaks intensify and to expand vaccine production capacity while supporting a broader range of vaccine technologies.
Seasonal influenza remains a recurring public health threat, with European public health authorities estimating up to 50 million symptomatic cases each year in the EU and European Economic Area and 15,000 to 70,000 deaths associated with influenza. The World Health Organization says seasonal influenza causes around one billion cases globally each year, including 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness and 290,000 to 650,000 deaths from respiratory complications, and it reported 46 next-generation influenza vaccines in clinical development as of February 2026.