Pascal Soriot, executive director of AstraZeneca.
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AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot defended the delayed launch of the coronavirus vaccine in the EU, saying the doctor was “working 24/7” to fix production problems. He also noted that the EU ordered three months later than the UK, however, which meant it lagged behind in dealing with supply issues.
The EU reacted angrily to a delay in AstraZeneca’s delivery of the coronavirus vaccine, which is expected to be approved by the European Medicines Authority by the end of the week, to the bloc.
The 27-member bloc expected about 80 million doses of jab by the end of March, but will now receive only about 31 million doses. As Member States struggle to access vaccine supply and implementation, the EU said it could limit exports of EU-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Soriot said delays in delivering his coronavirus vaccine were caused by a variety of production problems.
“We think we solved these problems, but we were practically two months ago where we wanted to be,” he said.
The British-Swedish doctor also experienced “such tooth problems in the UK supply chain”, Soriot noted, however, because the British contract was signed three months before the European vaccine agreement, the company ” it took another three months to fix all the bugs I experienced. “
However, he said AstraZeneca plans to deliver much of the EU’s promised vaccines in February. “But, you know, if we deliver in February what we intend to deliver, it’s not a small volume. We plan to deliver millions of doses in Europe, it’s not small,” he told the newspaper.
A Brazilian doctor voluntarily receives an injection as part of phase 3 studies of a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, in July 2020.
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Asked what amount the EU could expect to receive, Soriot said that as soon as the vaccine is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), “we will deliver at least 3 million doses immediately to Europe, then we will have another transport about a week later and then the third or fourth week of February. And the goal is to administer 17 million doses by February. “
“It’s not as good as we’d like it to be, but it’s really not that bad,” he said. Globally, Soriot said production capacity will be 100 million doses starting in February.
Anger in the EU
Talks between AstraZeneca and the EU took place on Monday, after which European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the talks “led to dissatisfaction with the lack of clarity and insufficient explanations”.
The EU has asked AstraZeneca to provide it with a detailed plan for vaccine deliveries and when the distribution will take place, with additional talks set for Wednesday.
Some countries, including Italy, have threatened legal action against AstraZeneca for delay. Others have wondered why the UK, which is heavily dependent on AstraZeneca in its vaccination launch, has advanced its vaccination process and has not yet experienced a shortage of supplies. It immunized more than 6.8 million people with at least one first dose of the two-dose vaccine.
Soriot said the UK production plant is more productive and insisted there is no anti-EU context.
“First of all, 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 problems, but we solved them all, a had good productivity, but it’s the UK factory since it started earlier. “
“We don’t do it on purpose. I’m European, I have Europe at heart. Our president is Swedish, he’s European. Our CFO is European. Many of the people in charge are European. So we want to treat Europe as best we can.”
He noted that the drug manufacturer had a “best effort” agreement with the EU because it wanted to be supplied at the same time as the UK, even if it was later to request the vaccine. “By the way, we are not committed to the EU. It is not a commitment we have to Europe: it is the best effort.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses for a photo with a vial of the candidate vaccine AstraZeneca / Oxford University Covid-19.
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Expansion and production issues
With a coronavirus vaccine developed, clinically tested and approved in less than a year, Soriot said it is natural to experience errors in the enlargement process.
“We are increasing up to hundreds of millions, billions of doses of vaccines at a very high rate. A year ago, we didn’t have a vaccine. When you do that, you have errors, you have problems with enlargement.” he said, adding that there are current problems with the production of the vaccine in two European plants.
“For Europe, the drug is essentially produced in two factories, one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium. The medicinal product is actually produced in Italy and Germany. So, from the point of view of medicinal products, we have maximum capacity. We have zero problems. The current problems are related to the manufacture of the substance of the drug, “he said.