E.U. has asked the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca to supply doses of COVID-19 vaccines from its U.K. plant.
The European Union (E.U.) has asked the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca to supply doses of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines from its United Kingdom (U.K.) plant.
This comes amidst rising concerns of shortage of doses across Europe. AstraZeneca has irked the E.U. by saying that it can deliver only a fraction of the doses it promised for the first quarter of 2021. E.U. would get 60% fewer doses of the vaccine than promised for January-March 2021.
AstraZeneca has cited production issues at European plants as the major reason for delay. E.U. now wants doses made elsewhere to make-up for the shortfall.
Taking it to twitter, The European Commissioner for Health & Safety – Stella Kyriakides tweeted,
We remain always open to engage with @AstraZeneca to resolve this in a spirit of collaboration and responsibility.
— Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) January 27, 2021
▶️The Steering Board meets again this evening at 1830. I call on Astrazeneca to engage fully, to rebuild trust, and to provide complete information. pic.twitter.com/v6aUfQqx6s
Asking AstraZeneca for a clear plan, she tweeted,
We regret the continued lack of clarity on the delivery schedule and request a clear plan from AstraZeneca for the fast delivery of the quantity of vaccines that we reserved for Q1. We will work with the company to find solutions and deliver vaccines rapidly for EU citizens.
— Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) January 27, 2021
She also had a word with the Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O) of AstraZeneca – Pascal Soriot and stressed that contractual obligations must be met and vaccines must be delivered to E.U. citizens.
She reiterated that E.U. signed an advanced purchase agreement for a product which at that time did not existed and which still today is not yet authorised. She stated that E.U. signed the agreement hoping AstraZeneca builds a manufacturing capacity to produce the vaccine early so that they can deliver a certain volume of doses the day that it is authorised.
It is to be noted that European Medicines Agency (EMA), E.U.’s agency in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products, has so far only approved Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine for roll-out across Europe. It is yet to approve AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
Speaking on the occasion, an AstraZeneca Spokesman said the company had “committed to even closer co-ordination to jointly chart a path for the delivery of our vaccine over the coming months.”
The E.U. had signed a deal with AstraZeneca in August for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million more, but the company has reported production delays at 2 plants, one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium. However, E.U. says that the contract clearly stipulates that the 2 main vaccine production factories in the U.K. are to be classed as primary manufacturing sites and the production sites in Belgium and the Netherlands are to be used as secondary priorities.
The E.U. had hoped that as soon as they approve the vaccine, AstraZeneca must immediately start the delivery, with some 80 million doses arriving in the 27 nations by March 2020.
Meanwhile, Pfizer-BioNTech, which has an even bigger vaccine-production deal with the E.U., is also experiencing delays. French drug maker Sanofi has announced that it will help produce 125 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab by the end of the year. The company will allow Germany-based BioNTech to use its facilities in Frankfurt from July.
