A production line of AstraZeneca.
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The European Union has suggested that drugmaker AstraZeneca divert its coronavirus vaccine from the UK to mainland Europe as a battle over production and supply delays continues.
This comes after AstraZeneca told the EU last week that it would initially deliver far fewer doses of its Covid vaccine to the 27-member bloc than initially thought.
The EU on Wednesday demanded that the pharmaceutical giant abide by its agreement to supply him with coronavirus vaccines in any way necessary.
Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said talks with the company, which continued on Wednesday, were ‘constructive’. But she also tweeted that “contractual obligations must be met, vaccines must be delivered to EU citizens.”
She said in a statement that the EU had rejected the ‘logic of first-time first’ after accusing AstraZeneca’s CEO of delaying the failure to address dental issues on its European manufacturing sites, saying similar issues in the UK have been ironed out because he ordered his vaccine dose three months earlier than the EU.
In a press briefing, Kyriakides said that there is ‘no hierarchy’ in the production plants mentioned in the previous purchase agreement with AstraZeneca, and that there is no provision on those who want the EU or not.
“In the contract, there are four factories listed, but that does not make a distinction between the UK and Europe. The UK factories are part of our pre-purchase agreement and therefore they have to deliver,” she said. There was no clause in the contract that the drug manufacturer would prioritize the UK, she added.
Slag brou
This is the latest development in the very public argument between the EU and AstraZeneca, as the latter is facing problems at two of its European plants.
The British-Swedish CEO Pascal Soriot further unleashed tensions on Tuesday when he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that his agreement with the EU was a “best effort” and not a ‘contractual commitment’. ‘not.
The EU has backtracked, demanding that the drugmaker submit detailed plans for its delivery schedule. One official explicitly asked AstraZeneca to divert doses made in the UK to the EU, although the company did not respond, according to a Reuters report.
In the Tuesday interview, Soriot said: “The British government has said that the supply coming from the British supply chain will first go to the UK. In fact, that’s how it is. The EU agreement states that the manufacturing sites in the UK an option for Europe, but only later. ‘
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not comment directly on Wednesday, but said: “We are very confident in our stock, we are very confident in our contracts, and we are continuing on that basis.”
Nothing drives
The EU is struggling to get its vaccination action in gear because it has no stock. Vaccine manufacturer Pfizer-BioNTech first struck it, announcing that it had to temporarily reduce production to improve its production capacity in Belgium. Following this, AstraZeneca follows its delivery estimates for the region last Friday.
One unnamed senior EU official told Reuters that the bloc expected about 80 million doses by March, but was told he would receive only 31 million doses. The company did not confirm the quantities involved.
The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine for use on Friday.
The UK ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last May, making it the first country to do so. It is highly dependent on the vaccine for the vaccination system, which jumped ahead of those in mainland Europe, which started in early December. The EU began its entry into force on 27 December; it originally ordered 300 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in August.
To date, the UK has vaccinated more than 7.1 million people with a first dose of vaccine, and almost half a million have received their second dose, which means that it has done more vaccinations than Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined. , according to Our World In Data Figures.