AstraZeneca to supply another 9 million doses of vaccine

Pharmaceutical company BERLIN (AP) AstraZeneca has agreed to supply an additional 9 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union during the first quarter, the bloc’s executive arm said on Sunday.

The new target of 40 million doses by the end of March is still only half of what the British-Swedish company originally intended before announcing a shortage due to production problems, sparking a clash between AstraZeneca and the EU last week. .

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after a phone call with seven vaccine manufacturers on Sunday that AstraZeneca would also start deliveries a week earlier than planned and expand its production capacity in Europe.

Step forward for vaccines, wrote Von der Leyen, who has been under great pressure over the handling of vaccine orders by the European Commission in recent days.

The EU lags far behind Britain and the United States in vaccinating its population of 450 million against the virus. The slow spread has been blamed on a number of national problems as well as the slow authorization of vaccines and an initial shortage of supply.

AstraZeneca’s announcement last week that it would initially supply only 31 million doses to EU 27 member states due to production problems sparked a heated dispute between the two sides, with officials in Brussels saying they feared the company was treated the block unfairly compared to other clients, such as the UK.

On Friday, hours after regulators authorized the vaccine for use across the EU, the commission said it was tightening export rules. of coronavirus vaccines, prompting an angry response from Britain. The Commission has made it clear that the new measure will not restrict deliveries of vaccines produced in the 27-nation bloc to Northern Ireland, a UK territory that was guaranteed unimpeded cross-border entry into the Republic of Ireland under the post-Brexit agreement between Britain and the EU.

EU member states praised the bloc’s executive branch last year for signing multiple deals with vaccine manufacturers, saying the joint purchase using the combined market weight of the entire bloc had ensured a fair distribution to all 27 countries. at good prices.

Since then, the mood of many EU citizens towards Brussels has deteriorated, as countries outside the bloc rush forward in the race to vaccinate their populations.

The British government has not been shy about promoting its relative vaccine success, which has helped distract from the fact that the country remains at the top of the death toll in Europe.

Official figures show that 598,389 shots were fired across the UK on Saturday, more than six times the number Germany managed on Friday, the last day for which figures were available.

So far Germany has given at least a dose of 2.2% of its population. Britain has done the same for 13.2% of its citizens.

In response, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on state governors on Monday to discuss what the German media is describing as a vaccination breach.

Von der Leyen, who was Germany’s defense minister before taking office in Brussels, insisted the EU had made good progress.

Of course we currently have a difficult phase, she told German public broadcaster ZDF, but added that in the second quarter more vaccines will become available as regulators approve additional formulas and further production capacity goes online.

Pfizer, which developed the first widely tested and approved coronavirus vaccine alongside German firm BioNTech, has said it expects to increase global production this year from 1.3 million doses to 2 billion doses. Tens of millions of them are likely to go to the EU.

In a statement, the European Commission said it plans to set up a specialized body to improve the blocks’ response to health emergencies and provide a more structured approach to pandemic preparedness.

As part of the effort, together with industry, the EU said it would fund the creation and development of vaccines and increase production in the short and medium term, and also to target COVID-19 variants.

The pandemic stressed that production capacity is a limiting factor, she said. It is essential to address these challenges.

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