BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union’s dispute with AstraZeneca intensified on Wednesday, with the Anglo-Swedish drug manufacturer rejecting the EU’s claim that it has given up talks on the supply of vaccines.
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it intends to meet with EU officials in Brussels later that day. The comments came after EU officials said the company had informed the bloc it would not attend a meeting to discuss delayed vaccine commitments – the third such talks in as many days as possible.
“The representative of AstraZeneca announced this morning, informed us this morning, that their participation is not confirmed, it is not happening,” said Dana Spinant, spokeswoman for the European Commission.
The AstraZeneca team and the EU have 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.
The latest disagreement between the two sides came after AstraZeneca rejected the EU’s accusation that the company had not honored its commitments to deliver coronavirus vaccines. AstraZeneca said the figures in its contract with the EU are targets that could not be met due to problems with the rapid expansion of production capacity.
Executive Director Pascal Soriot made the comments in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica after several days of criticism from angry EU leaders over the news that initial deliveries from AstraZeneca would be lower than expected.
The Anglo-Swedish drug manufacturer said last week that it intends to reduce initial deliveries in the EU to 31 million doses from 80 million due to the low efficiency in the manufacturing process.
“Our contract is not a contractual commitment,” Soriot said. “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. ”
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it understands and shares “the frustration that the initial supply volumes of our vaccine delivered to the European Union will be lower than forecast”.
On Monday, the EU threatened to impose strict export controls in a few days on block-produced COVID-19 vaccines.
The EU, which has 450 million citizens and the economic and political influence of the world’s largest trading bloc, lags far behind countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom in launching coronavirus vaccines for its health workers and people. 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 deficit in planned deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine comes at the same time as a slowdown in the distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech photos as the company upgrades production facilities at a factory in Belgium.
___
Kirka reported from London.
___
Follow the full AP pandemic coverage at:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak