BERLIN: Germany plans to spend 3.9 billion euros on 204 million vaccine doses for next year to guard against production bottlenecks and have ample provision for any new COVID-19 variants that might emerge or the need for booster shots.

The bulk of provision will come from 80 million-odd doses of BionTech/Pfizer's mRNA vaccine that Germany has already contracted for via the European Union's procurement scheme, according to a health ministry paper seen by Reuters.

A further 31.8 million doses will be in the form of Moderna's mRNA vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson's vector vaccine will contribute 18.3 million doses, and a total 70 million doses of vaccines from Sanofi, Novavax and Valneva will contribute the rest.