Interview with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot on EU supplies

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot defended his delayed deployment of the coronavirus vaccine to the EU, saying the drugmaker works 24/7 to resolve production issues. But he also noted that the EU ordered three months later than the UK, which means it was lagging behind in dealing with issues.

The EU has reacted angrily to a delay in AstraZeneca’s supply of coronavirus vaccine, which is expected to be approved by the European Medicines Regulator by the end of the week.

The 27-member bloc expected about 80 million doses of the jab by the end of March, but will now reportedly only receive about 31 million doses. As member states struggle to gain access to vaccines and explosions, the EU has said it could restrict exports of EU-produced Covid-19 vaccines.

In the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Soriot said that delays in the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine are caused by various production issues.

“We believe we have solved the problems, but we are basically two months behind where we wanted to be,” he said.

The British-Swedish drugmaker has also experienced ‘problems like this in the British supply chain’, Soriot noted, but because the British contract was signed three months before the European vaccine agreement, the company had an extra three months to cover all the errors we were experiencing. has. ‘

However, he said AstraZeneca still plans to deliver a large portion of the vaccines to the EU in February. “But, you know, if we deliver what we plan to deliver in February, it’s not a small volume. We plan to deliver millions of doses to Europe, it’s not small,” he told the newspaper said.

Asked about the amount the EU can expect to receive, Soriot said that once the vaccine has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), “we will immediately send at least 3 million doses to Europe, then we will have to a consignment about a week later and then the third or fourth week of February. The goal is to deliver 17 million doses by February. ‘

“It’s not as good as we’d like, but it really is not that bad,” he said. Worldwide, Soriot said production capacity would be 100 million doses from February.

Talks between AstraZeneca and the EU were held on Monday, after which EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said discussions had “led to dissatisfaction over the lack of clarity and inadequate explanations.”

The EU has asked AstraZeneca to provide a detailed plan on vaccine delivery and when distribution will take place, with further discussions set for Wednesday.

Some countries, including Italy, have threatened legal action against AstraZeneca over the delay. Others asked why the UK, which relied heavily on the AstraZeneca sting in its vaccination, was ahead in its vaccination picture and had not yet run out of stock. It vaccinated more than 6.8 million people, with at least a first dose of the two-dose vaccine.

Soriot said the production plant in the UK was more productive and insisted there was no anti-EU context.

“Firstly, we have different plants and they have different yields and different productivity. One of the highest yielding plants is in the UK because it started earlier. It also had its own problems, but we all solved it. good productivity, but it’s the British plant because it started earlier. ‘

“We do not do it on purpose. I am a European, I have Europe at heart. Our chairman is Swedish, is a European. Our CFO is a European. Many people in management are a European. “So we want to treat Europe as the best we can.”

He noted that the drug manufacturer had a ‘best attempt’ agreement with the EU, as it wanted to supply it as the UK at the same time, although it would later request the vaccine. “By the way, we have not committed to the EU. It is not a commitment we have to Europe; it is a best effort.”

With a coronavirus vaccine being developed in less than a year, clinically under scrutiny, Soriot said it is natural to experience errors in the scaling process.

“We are increasing many hundreds of millions, billions of doses of vaccines at a very high rate. A year ago we had no vaccine. If you do, you have problems, you have problems with scaling up,” he said, adding that there are currently problems with the production of the vaccine in two European plants.

“For Europe, the drug substance is produced in two plants, one in the Netherlands, one in Belgium. The drug product is actually manufactured in Italy and Germany. From a drug products point of view, we have the full capacity. We have no problem. The current problems have to do with the manufacture of the remedy, ‘he said.