EU officials lashed out at pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Wednesday but failed to make commitments to address a “massive” shortage in coronavirus vaccine production, pushing the bloc by at least the first three months of 2021. about 75 million doses fall short of expectations.
“We regret the continued lack of clarity on the delivery schedule and ask AstraZeneca for a clear plan for the prompt delivery of the amount of vaccines we have reserved for Q1,” said EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. tweeted after a meeting Wednesday evening with an unexpected appearance by AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot.
Kyriakides insisted that the European Commission would work with the company “to find solutions and quickly deliver vaccines to EU citizens.” But the insurance seemed rather hollow after a day when the EU threatened legal action, waved the prospect of vaccine export restrictions and accused Soriot and his company of failing to meet their “ contractual, social and moral obligations ” – then the meeting empty-handed.
The lack of a concrete narrative from the company would certainly increase political tensions in the 27 EU Member States, with the coronavirus pandemic still raging and political leaders under increasing pressure to explain why the EU is lagging behind countries such as Israel and the United States. and especially the UK in deploying vaccines for citizens.
Tensions are particularly high over the situation in the UK, where AstraZeneca is based and where the company now produces its vaccine in two factories that appear to be running at full capacity. The UK is currently receiving all of its expected deliveries from those factories after the first hiccups that last month had the company ship vaccines to Britain manufactured at factories in the Netherlands and Germany.
In a stunning interview with La Repubblica on Tuesday, Soriot blamed the EU for being three months slower than the UK in finalizing the vaccine purchase deals, which AstraZeneca co-developed with the University of Oxford, and said the UK government rightly expected that all vaccine doses produced within its limits would remain there for the foreseeable future.
At a press conference earlier on Wednesday, Kyriakides flatly accused AstraZeneca of breaching its contractual obligations and demanded that the company do everything necessary, including diverting supplies from the UK factories to fill the deficit on the continent. She also stressed that Britain had no priority claim to vaccines manufactured on its territory.
“Not being able to guarantee production capacity is against the letter and spirit of our agreement,” Kyriakides said, adding: “We regret the logic of first-come, first-served. That may work for the neighborhood butchers. but not in contracts and not in our pre-purchase agreements. ”
In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made it clear that he did not want to be involved in the EU dispute, and gave no indication that he wanted to lend a hand to Brussels. “We are very confident in our deliveries,” said Johnson on Wednesday when asked about the EU’s claim on doses in the UK. “We have great confidence in our contracts and we will continue on that basis.”
When asked about the EU pressure on AstraZeneca, Johnson said, “The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is clearly very important to our country and to the world. The issue in question is for our friends in the EU and AstraZeneca. “
Money matters
Despite Soriot’s criticism that the EU had been late in buying his company’s vaccine, four EU countries signed a deal with AstraZeneca last June, shortly after the UK signed its first contract in May.
But the details mattered little, as it became clear that the EU had little influence over the company, despite the fact that it had allocated € 336 million to help it develop and prepare the vaccine for large quantities. even before they received formal approval from the European Medicines Agency is expected on Friday.
The Commission has yet to pay the whole € 336 million – there is “a good chunk” of it left, an EU official said, “not just a few cents.” Another Commission official said the Commission will “chase” the company to get a refund.
But withholding or getting money back won’t prove to be any consolation, given that what the EU’s heads of state or government need – and what their citizens are demanding – is vaccine.
And in that regard, Brussels seemed to be able to do little to immediately secure more doses.
Commission officials recognized that litigation would take years. “That’s not really the focus of our attention,” said another EU official. “The focus of our attention is the execution of the contract now, because the vaccines are needed now, not in two years.”
Meanwhile, in the European Parliament, Chairman of the Health Committee Pascal Canfin plans to tow AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna CEOs for a hearing.
Hoarding problems
While the EU plans to impose new export controls – primarily to find out exactly how much vaccine is being produced and where manufacturers want to send it – being too harsh on that front could backfire.
Already leaders from other parts of the world, such as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, accuse the EU and wealthier countries of hoarding vaccines and denying access to developing countries. And there are other EU partners and allies, including fellow G7 member Canada, who depend at least in part on EU vaccine production for their supplies.
AstraZeneca was far from being highly armed, only reiterating its plan to deliver a vaccine as soon as possible. The company, which has manufacturing facilities worldwide, was also not concerned about the potential export restrictions.
“Our CEO Pascal Soriot was delighted to attend a meeting with the EU Vaccines Steering Committee tonight,” a company spokesman said in a statement Wednesday evening. “We had a constructive and open conversation about the complexities of scaling up our vaccine production and the challenges we have encountered. We have committed to even closer coordination to jointly map out a path for the delivery of our vaccine in the coming months, as we continue our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans during the nonprofit pandemic. ”
Soriot’s participation in the meeting also demonstrated the company’s relative confidence, despite the barrage of criticism from Brussels over comments Soriot made in his newspaper interview.
AstraZeneca had informed the Commission via email on Tuesday that it would not attend the steering committee meeting because it had no new information to share. Later, the company reversed course and said the executive vice president responsible for Europe and Canada would be in attendance.
Contract war of words
AstraZeneca’s balanced statement contrasted sharply with the heated rhetoric that came out of the Commission’s press room on Wednesday, where hundreds of journalists tuned in to a series of news conferences and technical briefings focused primarily on the vaccine dispute.
At her press conference, Kyriakides tried to take a hard line. “Let me be crystal clear,” she said, “the 27 member states of the European Union are united that AstraZeneca must fulfill its obligations in our agreements. We are in a pandemic. We are losing people every day. These are not numbers and they are not statistics. These are individuals with families, with friends and colleagues who are also all affected. Pharmaceutical companies, vaccine developers, have moral, social and contractual responsibilities to fulfill. ”
And she was especially critical of Soriot’s claim that AstraZeneca was not required to deliver a set number of doses, just to “do its best.”
“The view that the company is under no obligation to deliver because we have signed a best effort agreement is neither correct nor acceptable,” said Kyriakides.
She and other Commission officials stressed that the EU purchase agreements did not differentiate between the AstraZeneca factories in the UK and those in the EU countries, saying that the Commission would never have agreed to a deal that was exclusively factory was based.
They insisted that AstraZeneca had made clear commitments to Brussels, but was also aware of its obligations to the UK, and dismissed the vague claims about production problems at a factory in Belgium as an insufficient excuse for a shortage that they said was the EU would leave with only 25 percent of its expected vaccine deliveries in the first quarter.
An official suggested that AstraZeneca had misled the EU about its options. “It was only last Friday that we found out that, you know, there was a really huge shortage and that’s really something that is not acceptable,” said the official.
While the Commission was doing its best to deal with the situation, it suddenly found itself shifting some old positions. After months of insistence on confidentiality being absolutely vital to successful vaccine purchase contracts, the Commission said it demanded AstraZeneca sign a contract with the EU public, claiming this would refute Soriot’s claims.
Last week, some EU heads of state or government expressed anger at Pfizer, another vaccine manufacturer, over a temporary slowdown in production at its factory in Belgium. But Tuesday, the Commission praised Pfizer for handling the problems better than AstraZeneca.
Commission officials also acknowledged that they had developed their contract with AstraZeneca for vaccine production in Europe, specifically to avoid the risk of export restrictions by former US President Donald Trump. Only now will the Commission proceed with its own export restrictions.
But a senior EU official said the bloc’s main purpose was actually not to focus on such intricacies. “What we’re really interested in – you have to realize – is not the dispute over this or that aspect,” said the senior official. “We want to have the vaccines. We want to find the solution together with the company.”
Charlie Cooper and Florian Eder contributed to the reporting.
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