The European Union on Monday slammed pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, accusing it of not guaranteeing the delivery of coronavirus vaccine doses without a valid explanation and threatening to impose strict controls on exports of bulk vaccines.
EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the bloc, which is already facing harsh criticism for a slow distribution of the vaccine in the 27 member states, “will take whatever action is necessary to protect its citizens and their rights”. .
The EU, which has 450 million citizens and the economic and political weight of the world’s largest trading bloc, lags behind countries such as Israel and Britain in inoculating its health workers and those most vulnerable to disease.
This is despite more than 400,000 deaths caused by COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Delays in scheduled deliveries of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, which is expected to receive medical clearance from the block on Friday, along with failures in the distribution of vaccine doses developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, are putting pressure on European nations.
“EU member states are united: vaccine developers have social and contractual responsibilities to fulfill,” Kyriakides said after two tense negotiations with AstraZeneca that ended Monday night.
The two sides will meet again on Wednesday.
The delay is all the more irritating as the EU has paid 2.7 billion euros ($ 3.28 billion) to various pharmaceutical companies to support the rapid development and increase the production potential of various vaccines, Kyriakides said.
He added that the negotiations started on Monday ended “with dissatisfaction with the lack of clarity and insufficient explanations”.
The lack of confidence was in stark contrast to the jubilant tone of just a few months ago, when the major pharmaceutical giants took swift and massive steps to develop a pandemic vaccine whose senses had not been seen for more than a century.
The EU has pledged to buy 300 million doses of AstraZeneca, with the option for another 100 million injections. Late last week, the Swedish-British company said it plans to reduce a first batch from 80 million to 31 million.