BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union is pressuring pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to deliver more doses of coronavirus vaccine to the bloc and keep its initial promises once the jab receives EU approval, especially since the bloc has already invested in improving production capacity.
Already facing criticism for the slow launch of vaccines in the 27 member states, the European Commission also wants a transparency register to record and approve all vaccine exports from EU countries to third countries.
“We, as the EU, need to know if and what vaccines are being exported from the EU,” said German Health Minister Jens Spahn. “This is the only way we can understand whether our EU contracts with producers are served fairly. An obligation to obtain approval for vaccine exports at EU level makes sense. ”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held urgent talks with the company’s head, Pascal Soriot, on Monday, and EU nations are also meeting with AstraZeneca to encourage the British-Swedish company to step up its vaccine production and meet the contractual objectives.
The EU, with 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 vaccines for the most vulnerable population and health workers. The leaders of the bloc have faced strong criticism for moving so slowly.
The European Medicines Agency is scheduled to review the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Friday and its approval is highly anticipated. The AstraZeneca vaccine is already used in the UK and has been approved for emergency use by half a dozen countries, including India, Pakistan, Argentina and Mexico.
AstraZeneca’s announcement that it would deliver fewer vaccines to the EU early increased pressure on the bloc of 27 nations, especially as Pfizer-BioNTech, the first vaccine to receive EU approval, failed last week to deliver on its promised deliveries to the EU. Pfizer has temporarily reduced vaccine deliveries to the EU and Canada as it renovates its Belgian plant to increase total production. Italy has threatened to sue Pfizer for delays.
Political pressure has prompted the European Commission, which is the EU executive, to act on Monday, with von der Leyen’s phone call to the head of AstraZeneca.
“She said she expects AstraZeneca to comply with the contractual arrangements in the advance purchase agreement,” said Eric Mamer, a spokesman.
“She reminded Mr Soriot that the EU had invested significant sums in the company in order to ensure that production was accelerated even before the conditional market authorization was issued by the European Medicines Agency.”
Of course, production problems can arise with the complex vaccine, but we expect the company to find solutions and exploit all possible flexibilities to deliver quickly. ”
Delays will make it more difficult to meet early targets in the EU’s goal of vaccinating 70% of its adult population by the end of the summer.
European Council President Charles Michel said the EU had already “punched us on the table” with Pfizer last week to make sure the delays ended by the end of this week.
The EU has signed six vaccination contracts for more than 2 billion doses, but only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been approved for use so far.
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Geir Moulson contributed to this Berlin report.
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