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Original title: Why is the EU vaccine supply crisis targeting AstraZeneca?
Currently, the European Union is fighting openly and fiercely with AstraZeneca over vaccine supply delays. In this “Hunger Game” for vaccines, the EU’s keen attitude towards AstraZeneca is striking, highlighting the urgent demand for vaccines in Europe and making the disclosure of vaccine supply data the focus of the conflict.
Previously, the European Union ordered 400 million doses of AstraZeneca’s new corona vaccine, but AstraZeneca stated that it could not provide the expected vaccine dose to the EU. In this regard, the European Commission found this unacceptable and threatened to use legal procedures to urge AstraZeneca to find a way to increase the offer.
“Best effort” contract
Following the negotiation meeting between the EU and AstraZeneca on Wednesday night, the conflict between the two parties eased slightly, but the schedule for the delivery of vaccines has not yet been finalized, although AstraZeneca promised to strengthen coordination and the plan. supply for the next few months. .
However, the conflict appeared to escalate again on Friday. British officials said they would not release data on the vaccine supply, saying this is for “safety reasons” rather than “hidden data”.
The vaccination schedule in the UK is significantly faster than in the EU. According to statistics from Our World in Data, so far 7.1 million people in the UK have received the first dose of the vaccine, and almost half of them have received the second dose, meaning the total number of vaccines in the United Kingdom exceeds that of Germany., The sum of France, Italy and Spain.
The EU launched a counterattack, requiring AstraZeneca to release more information on the vaccine supply and provide a detailed plan for the delivery schedule. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot (Pascal Soriot) recently said in an interview with Italian media that reaching an agreement with the EU is a “best effort” rather than a “contractual commitment”.
Soriot said that based on the principle of fairness, vaccines from the UK supply chain will reach the UK first. Because the UK ordered vaccines from the company before the European Union. According to public information, the United Kingdom ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in May last year, and was the first country in the world to order vaccines from the pharmacist; and the EU initially ordered vaccines from AstraZeneca in August last year, with orders for 100 million doses, and 100 million additional doses since then.
Furthermore, according to the supply agreement between AstraZeneca and the European Union, the vaccine produced at the UK manufacturing base is an EU option, and the EU is said to only be able to source the vaccine after the UK. However, the EU insisted that AstraZeneca’s claim that there was no “contractual commitment” was unacceptable and urged the company to meet its delivery obligations.
The contradiction between the two parties has highlighted the urgent need for EU vaccines. Currently, vaccines in EU countries, including Germany and France, are still very scarce, cannot meet the demand for vaccination and the death toll in EU countries continues to rise. Due to the interruption of the supply of vaccines in some countries, Spain and other places had to suspend vaccination plans, which greatly delayed the epidemic control process.
Suspension of supply or for 10 weeks
German Health Minister Jens Spahn (Jens Spahn) said Germany is expected to face a vaccine supply shortage for at least 10 weeks. The country currently only vaccinates about 2% of the population. The German Vaccine Council also recommended on Thursday that people over 65 should not be vaccinated with AstraZeneca due to a lack of data on the effectiveness of the vaccine at this age, complicating the country’s vaccination plan.
Professor Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist and director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Geneva Medical School, told a China Business News reporter: “The availability of the new corona vaccine will continue to be very important in the coming months. . Realistic problems. On the one hand, we have to vaccinate as many people as possible in the shortest time possible, but on the other hand, we are faced with the contradiction of insufficient vaccine supply. “
So why can’t AstraZeneca produce more vaccines or divert the vaccine supply? In this regard, Soriot admitted in an interview that a large European manufacturing plant of the company encountered a problem, causing the vaccine production schedule to fall behind expectations by about two months. “The early stages of vaccine production are often very complicated, and we certainly want to do better.” Soriot said: “According to the plan, we will supply millions of vaccines to Europe in February. Not a small amount ”.
The manufacturing facility where AstraZeneca found the problem is located in Belgium. The Belgian government said it was inspecting AstraZeneca’s production facilities in the country this week. Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke stated that the purpose of the inspection was “to ensure that the delay in delivery of the vaccine was due to production problems at the Belgian factory.”
AstraZeneca said the company has never stopped its efforts to produce vaccines. It has cooperated with more than 20 partners in more than 15 countries and established a dozen regional supply chains to support its vaccine production. The chain is based on the supply agreement input and investment of a specific country or international organization, including the European Union.
The only vaccines currently approved for emergency vaccination in Europe and the United States are Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca. The EU also accused Pfizer of an insufficient supply of vaccines, but later transferred the main contradiction to AstraZeneca. Byntec is actively expanding the vaccine production line to cover supply to the EU. The production line at Novartis’ biopharmaceutical production plant in Marburg, Germany, which was previously acquired by the company, will soon go into production, significantly increasing vaccine production capacity.
On the other hand, the French pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi is also helping Pfizer and Bigenciac in the production of vaccines. Sanofi’s latest disclosure indicated that the company will begin bottling and packaging more than 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine at its Frankfurt plant in Germany starting in July this year. Novartis also said a few days ago that it will seek to help solve current vaccine supply problems.
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