BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union dispute with AstraZeneca over the supply of the vaccine intensified on Wednesday, as the drugmaker defended its claims that it had given up its contractual commitments and that the two sides were facing further negotiation plans.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot addressed the dispute for the first time, dismissing the EU’s claim that the company is not living up to its commitments to deliver coronavirus vaccines. Soriot said delivery figures from AstraZeneca’s contract with the EU were targets, not firm commitments and could not be met due to problems with the rapid expansion of production capacity.
“Our contract is not a contractual commitment,” Soriot said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “It simply came to our notice then. I basically said that we will try our best, but we cannot guarantee that we will succeed. In fact, getting there is a little late. ”
Following the publication of the interview, an EU spokeswoman said AstraZeneca on Wednesday had given up talks on vaccine supply issues, which AstraZeneca immediately denied. A few hours later, the EU said talks had returned.
The EU, which has 450 million citizens and the economic and political influence of the world’s largest trading bloc, remains serious behind countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom in developing coronavirus vaccines for its health care workers and the most vulnerable. This is despite the fact that they have had over 400,000 confirmed deaths from the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.
The spit has also raised concerns about the nationalism of the vaccine, as countries desperate to end the pandemic and return to normal jockey for the limited supply of precious vaccines. On Monday, the bloc of 27 nations threatened to control the export of all vaccines made on its territory.
The EU has signed agreements to gain access to six different vaccines, but has so far only approved them by Pfzier-BioNTech and Moderna. The EU Drug Enforcement Authority will consider the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday.
AstraZeneca said last week that it intends to reduce initial deliveries in the EU to 31 million doses from 80 million due to low efficiencies in its manufacturing process in Europe. This has drawn up an angry response from the EU, which says it expects the company to deliver the full amount on time.
AstraZeneca is setting up more than a dozen regional supply chains worldwide to meet regional vaccine demand. Overall, AstraZeneca plans to deliver up to 3 billion doses to countries around the world by the end of 2021.
However, setting up each facility is a complicated process that involves training people and ensuring the safety and effectiveness of each batch of vaccines. Sometimes this goes easy, but in other cases there are problems, Soriot said.
“We teach them how to produce,” he said. “And then, you know, some people are new to this process. It’s like learning the process. I don’t know how to make the vaccine and they are not as effective as others. “
There are two basic steps in vaccine production. The first is a biological process that involves the growth of cells, which are injected with a virus, Soriot said. The second involves the transformation of this ‘medicinal substance’ into the final product, the filling of the ampoules and the testing of each batch of vaccine.
Soriot said AstraZeneca had to reduce deliveries to the EU because plants in Europe had lower yields than expected from the biological process used to make the vaccine. This has happened in other regions as well, as AstraZeneca has tried to rapidly expand production capacity to meet the demands of countries fighting the pandemic.
“We also had tooth problems in the UK supply chain,” Soriot said. “But the UK contract was signed three months before the European vaccine agreement, so I had another three months with the UK to fix all the problems I experienced. As far as Europe is concerned, we are three months ago fixing these errors. ”
An EU commission official, the organization’s executive, said the bloc had agreed to give Astra Zeneca 336 million euros ($ 407 million) to develop its vaccine and administer doses. The official, who was not allowed to speak in public, said that not all this money was paid and insisted that the commission specified in the contract that it would have the right to recover part of the money in case of failure.
The official would not say whether not delivering the doses on time would be a violation of the agreement. The official also confirmed that the commission is looking for legal ways to inspect AstraZeneca’s facilities in Belgium to better understand production deficiencies.
If the company’s plants in the UK operate more efficiently than those on the mainland, the EU expects to receive the doses made in the UK, according to the terms of the contract, the official said.
The lack of planned deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine comes at the same time as a slowdown in the distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech photos as Pfizer upgrades production facilities at a factory in Belgium.
“There are a lot of emotions running in this process right now and I can understand: people want a vaccine. I also want the vaccine, I want it today “, said Soriot. “But at the end of the day, it’s a complicated process.”
In North Wales, a factory that manufactured the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had to be partially evacuated on Wednesday after receiving a “suspicious package”.
Wockhardt Britain, an arm of the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company that produces the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said it notified authorities after receiving the package at its plant, 68 kilometers south of Liverpool.
Police blocked roads around the factory and the BBC reported that a bomb disposal unit had been called.
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Kirka reported from London. Sylvia Hui contributed from London
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