BRUSSELS – Crushed by serious interruptions in the supply of vaccines AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19, the European Union said on Wednesday that it was putting confidence and money in the Pfizer-BioNTech shot to save its vaccination and the doses for the to ensure future.
The pivot away from AstraZeneca, once a pillar of the EU vaccination program, comes after months of disagreement over delayed shipments, and because the company is concerned about the rare possible side effects of its shots.
In announcing the change in strategy, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that Pfizer had agreed to an early delivery of doses that she said the bloc should probably set the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults by the end of the summer.
This goal was jeopardized after AstraZeneca failed to deliver the expected doses in the first quarter of the year, and then suffered setbacks again due to possible side effects associated with blood clots. The European vaccine campaign suffered a further blow on Tuesday when Johnson & Johnson said it would delay its own implementation in Europe due to similar concerns and after regulators suspended use in the United States.
There was no indication that the European Union was going to cancel orders for tens of millions of doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, or that European health officials had changed their minds that the benefits of the shots outweighed any risks. But EU officials have indicated that they will only negotiate new ventures with Covid vaccines based on messenger RNA, or mRNA, such as Pfizer and Moderna.
“We need to focus now on technologies that are proving to be worthwhile: mRNA vaccines are a clear example of this,” she said. Von der Leyen said when she announced that the blockchain for 2022 and 2023 started with Pfizer for 1.8 billion doses.
The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines use a harmless virus to deliver a piece of genetic material from the virus that causes Covid, which causes a reaction in the immune system. The mRNA vaccinations, based on a newer technology, also use a piece of genetic material from the coronavirus, but not an entire virus, to elicit the immune response.
The EU move is an attempt to ‘precede what they see as a race to lock up mRNA vaccine supplies’, said Thomas J. Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations . He calls it “a very aggressive attempt to fend off a repeat” of the supply problems that have delayed the bloc’s vaccination process.
The European Union was criticized early on for the slow delivery of doses. And it fell further behind among the United States and Britain, as they suffered time and time again in its vaccination campaign, first with major interruptions from AstraZeneca at the end of January, and then with the rise of the possible rare blood disorder affecting the confidence of hurt the public. in vaccines and led to cancellation of appointment.
“As we can see with the announcement by Johnson & Johnson yesterday, there are still many factors that could disrupt the planned delivery schedules of vaccines,” she said. Von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
Mrs. Von der Leyen said the Pfizer doses being negotiated for the next two years will include potential shots to extend the immunity of people who have already been vaccinated, as well as possible new shots or boosters aimed at new, resilient variants. may be against existing vaccines.
The AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines performed well in clinical trials, and the potential for dangerous side effects was rare. But trials of the Pfizer and Moderna shots show that it was even more effective in preventing infection, and similar side effects did not occur. Another mRNA vaccine, from CureVac, is in clinical trials.
Naor Bar-Zeev, a vaccination expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the EU decision reflects difficult compromises for a region struggling to secure doses quickly. “They were trying to find the worst call here, not the best call,” he said.
On Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency, the group’s largest drug regulator, said it was speeding up the investigation into “very rare cases of unusual blood clots” among recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and would issue a recommendation on that next week. While the evaluation is ongoing, the agency reiterated its view that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
In a setback for AstraZeneca, Denmark on Wednesday became the first country to permanently discontinue the administration of the company’s vaccine, saying that the possible side effects are significant enough to do so as the pandemic is under control and on the Pfizer and Modern can rely on. vaccinations.
With Pfizer’s new commitment to bring forward the delivery of 50 million doses originally planned for the end of the year, the company expects to deliver a total of 250 million doses to the block by the end of June.
Me. Von der Leyen said that more than 100 million people in the European Union received at least one dose of vaccine, and 27 million received both. The additional Pfizer vaccines, coupled with 35 million doses expected from Moderna over the next three months, and a more limited use of AstraZeneca doses already in the pipeline, should be enough to push the block to the coveted milestone to reach 255 million people by September. , EU officials said.
In stark contrast to the criticism of AstraZeneca’s handling of EU trade, Ms. Von der Leyen praised Pfizer exuberantly, emphasizing the importance of the company’s ability to respond quickly to help the European Union.
“I would like to thank BioNTech / Pfizer – it is a trusted partner,” she said. Von der Leyen said. “It has met its obligations and is responding to our needs.”
Van der Leyen said that future doses of Pfizer would be produced in the European Union.
The export of the factories within the block to the rest of the world has enabled countries such as Mexico and Canada to start their vaccinations, but exports have also been identified as one of the reasons why there were not enough vaccines in Europe. .
In contrast, the United States and Britain have retained the vaccines made in their countries, which are trying to speed up their vaccination.
Monika Pronczuk and Rebecca Robbins reported.