LONDON – The European Union is threatening to restrict the export of Covid-19 vaccines in the bloc amid growing anger over the slow explosion of vaccinations.
“EU member states are united: vaccine developers have social and contractual responsibilities that they must uphold,” Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said late Monday after two tense negotiations with representatives of vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca, in which the commissioner said there were “insufficient explanations”. provide.
AstraZeneca surprised EU officials last week when it announced that the initial delivery volume of the Covid-19 vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University in Britain, would be lower than originally expected due to production issues in Europe. The company did not say how much lower the volumes will be.
This came just a week after Pfizer-BioNTech announced that there would be a temporary reduction in the delivery of vaccines to the block, also without determining the size of the reduction, but it will reassure that it will meet its delivery schedule this week to the EU will resume.
Both AstraZeneca and Pfizer have vaccines in Europe.
Despite significant economic and political power, the bloc, with a combined population of 450 million people, fell behind in other parts of the world in Covid-19 vaccinations.
Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom are far ahead of EU countries, according to the Oxford University’s global website.
Britain, which recently left the EU, has so far administered more than 10 doses per 100 inhabitants, while the top-performing EU country, Denmark, stands at 3.6 doses per 100 inhabitants. Germany and France have 2 and 1.6 doses, respectively.
The delays are therefore a major blow to the union’s goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of its entire adult population by late summer.
The EU also began its vaccination efforts a few weeks after the United Kingdom and the United States amid tighter regulatory controls.
Kyriakides said the EU intends to “take any steps necessary to protect its citizens and its rights.”
“In the future, all companies that manufacture vaccines against Covid-19 in the EU will have to give early notice when they want to export vaccinations to third countries,” without working out in detail how future restrictions will work.
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Other EU officials did not respond to questions about whether they would go so far as to stop future exports, or provide further details on the exact measures they would be willing to take.
On Tuesday, German Health Minister Jens Spahn also asked for export restrictions on coronavirus vaccines in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF.
Vaccines leaving the EU need a permit, ‘so that we at least know what is being manufactured in Europe, what is leaving Europe and when it will leave Europe, or there will be a fair distribution,’ he said. He did not say exactly how the permit would work.
“We understand that the proposed EU notification process is aimed at increasing transparency and does not intend to limit the global supply of patients,” a Pfizer spokesman told NBC News in an email. that the U.S. vaccine supply is from Kalamazoo, Michigan. “But it is critical that governments do not impose export restrictions or other trade barriers that could create the danger of disrupting uncertainty and providing vaccine to patients around the world.”
AstraZeneca did not respond to requests for comment.
AstraZeneca has several orders from countries outside the EU, with the largest purchase of 500 million in the United States, but Canada, Japan, the African Union, Brazil, Australia and others also have millions of doses, according to data provided by Duke University. Similarly, Pfizer has several transactions with non-EU countries, including 200 million for the US and 100 million for China.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved in the EU, but is expected to receive a green light from the block’s medical regulator this week. The EU has pledged to buy 300 million doses with an option of 100 million more.
The EU has strategically negotiated large volumes of vaccine purchases for all its member states to carry out vaccinations across the bloc to avoid internal competition and logistical challenges.
The EU’s move to curb vaccine exports has already drawn criticism from UK officials, who acquired their own stock of vaccines and in December became the first country to expand the Pfizer vaccine.
“It looks like a rather childish and ominous way of acting,” David Jones, a former Brexit support minister, told the British newspaper The Telegraph, saying it looked “terrible like extortion”.
AstraZeneca and EU officials are expected to resume talks on Wednesday.
Vivi Vitalone and Andy Eckardt contributed.