November 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government said it approved the allocation of a further 20.4 million levs ($12.4 million/10.4 million euro) from the health ministry budget to COVID-19 vaccines and medication.
About 6.4 million levs of the total will go towards the EU's Emergency Support Instrument (ESI), which will ensure the country better access to coronavirus vaccines, the government said on Thursday.
The ESI is the financing arm of the Joint European Roadmap towards lifting coronavirus containment measures. The instrument helps mitigate the immediate consequences of the pandemic and anticipate the needs related to the exit and recovery.
The government also gave the green light to the health ministry to spend 14 million levs to procure 17,280 flacons of remdesivir by the end of the year.
Remdesivir is manufactured by US-based company Gilead Sciences and sells under the Veklury brand name. Clinical trials have shown that remdesivir speeds up the recovery of patients with COVID-19. Veklury was the first medicine approved by the European Commission for treatment of COVID-19.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)