WASHINGTON (AP) – Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines are in cold storage in the US that cannot be injected in the United States because they have not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but the Biden administration does not allow them to be shipped overseas, where US allies struggle to get adequate doses for vulnerable populations.
The two-dose vaccine of AstraZeneca is approved for emergency use of the European Union and the World Health Organization, but not in the US Now US partners are trying to urge President Joe Biden to release the stock, noting that the government has prepared enough doses of the three already approved vaccines to kill every American adult cover by the end of May and the entire American population in late July.
AstraZeneca said the US-produced vaccines are “owned” by the US government and require White House approval for shipment abroad.
“We understand that other governments may have contacted the US government regarding the donation of AstraZeneca doses, and we have asked the US government to carefully consider these requests,” Gonzalo Viña, an AstraZeneca spokesman, said in a statement. statement.
EU member states ambassadors this week discussed the challenge of accessing US-produced doses of the AstraZeneca shots. The German government said on Friday that it was in contact with US officials about vaccine supplies, but stressed that the European Commission was in the lead when it comes to obtaining shots for member states.
Biden and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have instructed representatives to discuss supply chains in vaccine manufacturing.
“Hopefully we will be able on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that adequate amounts of vaccine doses are distributed in accordance with the schedule to complete the vaccination campaigns,” said Eric Mamer, chief spokesman for the EU Commission.
Although not approved in the US, more than 10 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine are stored in the country for domestic use and cannot be exported under the terms of the company’s agreement with the federal government.
“We have a small inventory of AstraZeneca, so if approved, we can send that inventory to the American people as soon as possible,” COVID-19 White House coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday. the already approved recordings.
Drug manufacturers that received federal support in developing or expanding dose vaccine production had to sell their first doses to the US. 300 million doses – enough for 150 million Americans – before problems with the vaccine’s clinical trial stopped its approval in the US
The company said this month it expects to have about 30 million doses available to the US government by the end of March, and another 20 million by the end of April.
As foreign regulators have continued to approve the shot, the US has not dropped their contractual claim to the US-made initial doses.
That policy has also been criticized by American neighbors such as Canada and Mexico, who have been forced to seek vaccines produced on a different continent, rather than across the border. The enforcement comes because the Biden government has bought enough doses of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to inoculate 150 million more people than the population by the end of the year.
The US has also ordered 110 million doses of vaccine from Novavax, which are expected to be submitted for emergency approval next month.
“We want to be oversupplied and overprepared,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, saying Biden wanted to have emergencies in case of unforeseen issues with the existing production timeline.
“We still don’t know which vaccine is most effective in children,” she added. “We still don’t know the impact of variants or the need for booster shots. And these doses can also be used for booster shots as needed. Obviously, that’s still being studied by the FDA, but again, we want to be too prepared. “
Psaki pressed the AstraZeneca situation on Thursday, saying, “We have privately conveyed what we have communicated publicly, which is that our focus is on ensuring that the American people are vaccinated.”
AstraZeneca’s US trial of 30,000 people did not complete enrollment until January. The company has given no indication of when the first results could be ready beyond an executive with AstraZeneca’s US division’s statement to Congress last month that it expected it to be “soon.”
Amidst its own trip vaccine rollout, the EU appears to be increasingly resigning itself to the Biden administration which retains control over doses.
While the 27-nation bloc is keen to rekindle a fruitful transatlantic relationship after Trump’s crushing presidency, EU-US cooperation is proving to be a thorny issue, seen by some in Europe as a continuation of former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach.
The EU is at odds with AstraZeneca because the company delivers far fewer doses to the block than it promised. From the first order for 80 million doses to the EU in the first quarter of this year, the company will struggle to deliver half that amount.
Despite shortages at home and often accused of vaccine protectionism, the 27-country bloc has allowed the export of more than 34 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in recent weeks, including 953,723 injections to the United States.
Meanwhile, Russia and China, whose leaders don’t meet voters in free and fair elections, have used their domestically-produced shots for strategic influence.
According to a country-by-country report by The Associated Press, China has pledged about half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries. Four of China’s many vaccine manufacturers claim they will be able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year.
Russia has sent millions of doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to countries around the world, even if it vaccinates its own population. Analysts say a goal of this vaccine diplomacy is to bolster Russia’s image as a scientific, technological and benevolent power, especially as other countries are facing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines as wealthier countries are boasting Western-made versions .
Israel, which vaccinated more than half of its population with Pfizer vaccines made in Europe, has also tried to use vaccine diplomacy to reward allies.
Biden has moved to have the US contribute financially to the United Nations and World Health Organization-backed COVAX alliance, which will help share the vaccine with more than 90 low- and middle-income countries, but it has yet to commit to dividing doses. .
Casert and Petrequin reported from Brussels. Danika Kirka in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed.
Follow AP’s full pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak