WASHINGTON (AP) – Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine are in cold rooms in the US that cannot be injected into the states because it has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but the Biden government does not allow them overseas, where U.S. allies are struggling to get enough doses for vulnerable populations.
The AstraZeneca two-dose vaccine has received emergency approval of the European Union and the World Health Organization, but not in the United States. Now, US partners are asking President Joe Biden to release the offer, noting that the government has prescribed enough doses of the three already approved vaccines to each American adult by the end of May. and the entire U.S. population by the end of July.
AstraZeneca said the U.S.-manufactured vaccines were “owned” by the U.S. government and that White House approval was needed to send them overseas.
“We understand that other governments may have reached out to the U.S. government about donating doses of AstraZeneca, and we have asked the U.S. government to carefully consider these requests,” Gonzalo Viña, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, said in a statement. statement said.
EU ambassadors this week discussed the challenge of gaining access to US doses of AstraZeneca shots. The German government said on Friday it was in contact with US officials over vaccine supplies, but stressed that the European Commission had the lead when it came to obtaining shots for member states.
Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, instructed representatives to discuss supply chains in vaccine production.
“Hopefully, on both sides of the Atlantic, we will be able to ensure that sufficient doses of vaccine are distributed according to the schedule to complete the vaccination campaigns,” said EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.
Although not approved in the US, more than ten million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are taken into the country for domestic use and cannot be exported under the terms of the company’s agreement with the federal government.
“We have a small stock of AstraZeneca, so if we approve it, we can bring the stock out to the American people as quickly as possible,” said Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 coordinator, saying the US is the same procedure followed for which he used. the already approved shots.
Drug manufacturers who received federal assistance in developing or expanding vaccine production of doses had to sell their first doses to the US. In the case of AstraZeneca, whose vaccination was initially expected to be the first to receive federal authorization for emergency use, the U.S. government ordered 300 million doses – enough for 150 million Americans – before problems with the clinical trial of the vaccine approved it. held in the US
The company said this month it believes it will have about 30 million doses available to the U.S. government by the end of March, and another 20 million by the end of April.
As foreign regulators proceeded to approve the shot, the U.S. did not waive their contractual claim on the initial doses produced in the U.S.
The policy is also under criticism from U.S. neighbors such as Canada and Mexico, who have been forced to seek vaccines manufactured on another continent, rather than across the border. Its application comes because the government in Biden bought enough doses of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to vaccinate 150 million more people than the population by the end of the year.
The US has also ordered 110 million doses of vaccine from Novavax, which is expected to be available for emergency approval next month.
“We want to be over-provided and over-prepared,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday, saying Biden wants contingencies in case of unforeseen problems with the existing production timeline.
“We still do not know which vaccine will be best for children,” she added. ‘We still do not know what the impact of variants is or the need for boosters. And these doses can be used for stage recordings as well as needed. Of course, this is still being studied by the FDA, but again, we want to be overly prepared. ”
Psaki said on Thursday about the situation in AstraZeneca: “We have communicated what we disclose privately, and that is that we are focusing on ensuring that the American people are vaccinated.”
AstraZeneca’s US trial of 30,000 people only entered in January. The company has not yet given any hints as to when the initial results could be further than an executive, with AstraZeneca’s U.S. division declaring to Congress last month that it expects it to be soon.
Amid its own stumbling block, the EU appears to be increasingly relying on the Biden government to maintain the doses.
Although the 27-nation bloc is keen to resume a fruitful trans-Atlantic relationship after the Trump presidency, it appears that EU-US cooperation is a thorny issue, and some in Europe see it as’ a continuation of former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach.
The EU is at odds with AstraZeneca because the company delivers far fewer doses to the block than he promised. From the initial order of 80 million doses to the EU in the first quarter of this year, the company will struggle to deliver half the quantity.
Despite shortages at home and often accused of vaccine protection, the bloc of 27 countries has allowed the export of more than 34 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in recent weeks, including 953,723 shots to the United States.
Meanwhile, Russia and China, whose leaders do not face voters in free and fair elections, have used their locally-produced shots for strategic leverage.
According to the Associated Press, China has allocated about half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries per country. Four of China’s many vaccine manufacturers claim to be able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year.
Russia has sent millions of doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to countries around the world, even if it entrails its own population. Analysts say a goal of this vaccine diplomacy is to bolster Russia’s image as a scientific, technological and benevolent force, especially as other countries are experiencing shortages of COVID-19 vaccines as richer countries pick up Western-made versions.
Israel, which has vaccinated more than half of its population with Pfizer vaccines produced in Europe, has also tried to use the vaccine diplomacy to reward allies.
Biden did try to get the US to contribute financially to the United Nations and the COVAX alliance backed by the World Health Organization, which will help share the vaccine with more than 90 countries with lower and middle income countries, but he still has to commit to sharing doses. .
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Casert and Petrequin report from Brussels. Danika Kirka in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed.
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