EU officials struggled at pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca on Wednesday, but were unable to meet commitments to tackle a ‘massive’ coronavirus vaccine shortage, hitting at least 75 in the first three months of 2021. million doses will remain.
“We deplore the continuing lack of clarity on the delivery schedule and request a clear plan from AstraZeneca for the prompt delivery of the amount of vaccines we have reserved for the first quarter,” said EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. tweeted after a meeting Wednesday night that included an unexpected appearance by AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot.
Kyriakides insisted that the European Commission work with the company “to find solutions and quickly provide vaccinations for EU citizens.” But the insurance looks rather hollow after a day in which the EU threatened legal action, threatened the prospect of restrictions on vaccine exports and blew up Soriot and his company for failing to meet their ‘contractual, social and moral obligations’ – only to emerge from the meeting empty-handed.
The failure to obtain a concrete correction from the company has certainly increased political tensions in the 27 EU member states, with the coronavirus pandemic still raging and political leaders under increasing pressure to explain why the EU has lagged behind countries like Israel, the United States. and especially the United Kingdom to use vaccines for citizens.
Tensions are particularly high over the situation in the UK, where AstraZeneca is based, and where the company now manufactures its vaccine at two factories that are apparently operating at full tilt. The UK is currently receiving all of its expected deliveries from the plants to initial brackets that last month sent the company vaccines to Britain that were manufactured in factories in the Netherlands and Germany.
In a beautiful la Repubblica interview on Tuesday, Soriot blamed the EU for being three months slower than the UK in finalizing its purchase agreement for the vaccine, which AstraZeneca developed with the University of Oxford, and said that the British government rightly expects all doses of vaccines to be produced. within its boundaries it would remain there for the foreseeable future.
At a news conference earlier Wednesday, Kyriakides blamed AstraZeneca for violating its contractual obligations, demanding that the company do what was necessary, including diverting supplies from British factories to make up for the shortage on the mainland. She also insisted that Britain had no priority claim for vaccines manufactured in its territory.
“The fact that we are not able to ensure that the production capacity is contrary to the letter and spirit of our agreement,” Kyriakides said, adding: “We regret the logic of the first time. It may work at the neighborhood butchers, but not in contracts and not in our pre-purchase agreements. ”
In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made it clear that he did not want any part in the EU dispute and gave no indication that he was prepared to lend a hand to Brussels. “We are very confident in our stock,” Johnson said on Wednesday when asked about the EU’s demand for doses in the UK. “We are very confident in our contracts and we are continuing on that basis.”
Asked about the EU’s pressure on AstraZeneca, Johnson said: “The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is obviously very important for our country and for the world. The case is for our friends in the EU and AstraZeneca. ”
Money matters
Despite Soriot’s criticism that the EU was too late to buy his company’s vaccine, four EU countries reached an agreement with AstraZeneca in June last year, shortly after the UK signed its initial contract in May.
But the details mattered little, as it became clear that the EU had little influence over the company, despite allocating € 336 million to develop the vaccine and prepare to produce it in large quantities. , even before the formal approval of the European Medicines Agency. is expected Friday.
The commission has yet to pay out the total of € 336 million – there is still a ‘good deal’ of it, said one EU official: ‘not just a few cents.’ Another Commission official said the Commission would “chase” the company to get a refund.
But withholding or getting money back would be no consolation, as the EU heads of state and government need – and what their citizens are demanding – vaccination.
And up front, there was apparently little Brussels that could do to get more doses immediately.
Commission officials acknowledged that the lawsuit would take years. “It’s not really our attention,” said another EU official. “Our focus now is the execution of the contract, because the vaccines are needed now, not in two years.”
Meanwhile, the chair of the health committee in the European Parliament, Pascal Canfin plan to tow CEOs of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna for trial.
Abrasion problems
While the EU intends to introduce new export controls – initially with the aim of determining exactly how much vaccine is produced and where manufacturers plan to ship it – a too difficult line at the front could backfire .
Already leaders from other parts of the world, such as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, are accusing the EU and affluent countries of stockpiling vaccines and refusing access to developing countries. And there are other EU partners and allies, including fellow G7 member Canada, who are at least in part relying on EU vaccine production for their stock.
AstraZeneca is not heavily armed, but only reiterates its plan to deliver vaccination as soon as possible. The company, which has worldwide production facilities, also expressed no concern about the possible export restrictions.
“Our CEO, Pascal Soriot, was delighted to attend a meeting with the EU Vaccine Steering Board tonight,” a company spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday evening. ‘We had a constructive and open discussion about the complexity of scaling up our vaccine production and the challenges we faced. We have committed ourselves to closer coordination to pave the way for the delivery of our vaccine in the coming months, while continuing our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans without any profit during the pandemic. ”
Soriot’s participation in the meeting also indicated the relative confidence of the company, despite the great criticism from Brussels about the remarks Soriot made in his newspaper interview.
AstraZeneca told the Commission by email on Tuesday that it would not attend the Steering Board meeting because it had no new information to share. Later, the company turned around and said that its executive vice president responsible for Europe and Canada would attend.
Contract struggle of words
AstraZeneca’s equitable statement was a stark contrast to the fierce rhetoric that came out of the Commission’s press room on Wednesday, where hundreds of journalists tuned in for a series of news conferences and technical briefings focusing mainly on the vaccine dispute.
At her news conference, Kyriakides tried to take a hard line. ‘Let me be crystal clear,’ she said, ‘the 27 member states of the European Union are united that AstraZeneca must fulfill its obligations in our agreements. We’re in a pandemic. We lose people every day. These are not numbers and not statistics. These are people with families, with friends and colleagues who are all affected as well. Pharmaceutical companies, vaccine developers, have moral, social and contractual responsibilities that they must uphold. ”
And she objected to Soriot’s assertion that AstraZeneca was not obliged to deliver a specific number of doses, but only to make its ‘best effort’.
“The view that the company is not obligated to deliver because we have signed a ‘best effort’ agreement is neither correct nor acceptable,” Kyriakides said.
She and other Commission officials insisted that the EU’s purchase agreements did not differentiate between the AstraZeneca plants in the UK and those in the EU countries, and they said the Commission would never reach an agreement that only based on one factory.
They insisted that AstraZeneca had made clear commitments with Brussels, while also being aware of its obligations to the United Kingdom and dismissing the vague allegations of production problems at a plant in Belgium as an inadequate excuse for a deficit which they said would leave the EU with just 25 per cent of expected vaccine deliveries in the first quarter.
One official suggested that AstraZeneca had misled the EU about its capabilities. “It was only last Friday that we discovered that there was a huge shortage, and that is really something that is not acceptable,” the official said.
While the Commission was scrambling to manage the situation, it suddenly shifted positions for several years. After months of confidentiality were absolutely essential for the successful vaccine purchase contracts, the Commission said AstraZeneca was disclosing its contract with the EU, claiming it refuted Soriot’s claims.
Last week, some EU heads of state and government expressed outrage over Pfizer, another vaccine manufacturer, over a temporary slowdown at its plant in Belgium. But on Tuesday, the Commission praised Pfizer for handling its problems better than AstraZeneca.
Commissioners also acknowledged that they had specifically developed their contract with AstraZeneca for vaccine production in Europe to limit the risk of the introduction of former US President Donald Trump. The Commission is only now continuing with its own export restrictions.
But a senior EU official said the bloc was the main target for not concentrating on such complications. “What we’re really really interested in – you have to realize – is not the dispute over this or that aspect,” the senior official said. “We want the vaccines. We want to find the solution at the company.”
Charlie Cooper and Florian Eder reported.
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