BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union is putting pressure on pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to deliver more doses of coronavirus vaccines to the block and to deliver on its original promises once the shot gets EU approval, especially as the block has already invested in the block. improve production capacity.
The European Commission is already facing criticism for a slow roll-out of vaccines in the 27 Member States, but also wants a transparency register to register and approve all exports of vaccines from EU countries to third countries.
“We, as the EU, must be able to know whether and which vaccines are exported from the EU,” said German Health Minister Jens Spahn. “Only then can we understand whether our EU contracts with producers are being served fairly. An obligation to obtain approval for the export of vaccines at EU level makes sense. “
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, held urgent talks with company head Pascal Soriot on Monday, and EU countries also meet with AstraZeneca to encourage the British-Swedish company to ramp up its vaccine production and meet its contractual targets .
The EU, with the economic and political influence of the world’s largest trading bloc, is lagging far behind countries such as Israel and Great Britain in introducing vaccines to its most vulnerable populations and health workers. The leaders of the bloc have been strongly criticized for being so slow.
The European Medicines Agency will review the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Friday and will be long-awaited. The AstraZeneca vaccine is already in use 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 will deliver fewer vaccines to the EU at an early stage has only added pressure on the 27-country bloc, especially since Pfizer-BioNTech, the first vaccine to receive EU approval, made its promised deliveries last week to the EU. Pfizer has temporarily reduced deliveries of vaccines to the EU and Canada as it renews its factory in Belgium to increase overall production. Italy has threatened to sue Pfizer for the delays.
Political pressure prompted the European Commission, which is the EU’s executive, to take action on Monday with von der Leyen’s phone call to AstraZeneca’s chief.
“She made it clear that she expects AstraZeneca to honor the contractual arrangements set out in the purchase agreement,” said her spokesperson Eric Mamer.
“She reminded Mr Soriot that the EU has invested significant amounts in the company up front, precisely to ensure that production is ramped up even before the conditional marketing authorization is issued by the European Medicines Agency.”
Of course there may be production problems with the complex vaccine, but we expect the company to find solutions and use all possible flexibility to deliver quickly. “
The delays will make it more difficult to meet the early targets of the EU target of vaccinating 70% of the adult population by the end of summer.
European Council President Charles Michel said the EU already “banged our fists on the table” with Pfizer last week to ensure that the delays end by the end of this week.
The EU has signed six vaccine contracts for more than 2 billion doses, but so far only the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been approved for use.
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Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.
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