[ad_1]
The European Union is missing about 10 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine that were due to be delivered in December, according to EU sources.
This leaves the trading bloc about a third short of the supplies it was now expecting from the US company.
It comes as the European Commission revealed that it has reached an agreement with Moderna to supply 150 million additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine this year, nearly doubling the number of injections obtained from the American biotech firm by 2021.
Under the deal, the EU also has the option to buy another 150 million doses next year. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the agreement “good news”.
Also today, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, has said she will sign a second contract with Pfizer for up to 300 million additional doses of vaccines.
The EU currently has two contracts with Pfizer for the supply of 600 million doses of vaccines.
However, the delay in the delivery of up to 10 million doses of the vaccine is another blow to the EU, which has also been hit by delays in deliveries from Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and American company Moderna, and also it had faced previous delays on the Pfizer vaccine.
It also raises questions about the justification for an EU vaccine export control plan that was put in place in late January to ensure on-time deliveries but has yet to be activated, despite supply shortages.
Latest coronavirus stories
By the middle of last week, Pfizer had delivered 23 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with German firm BioNTech to the EU, said an EU official who is directly involved in talks with the US company.
That was about 10 million fewer doses than Pfizer had promised to deliver in mid-February, said a second official who is also participating in the talks.
Pfizer declined to comment, saying its delivery schedules were confidential. The European Commission executive did not respond to a request for comment on the delivery deficiencies.
EU officials have said that Pfizer has committed to administering 3.5 million doses a week since early January, for a total of 21 million injections as of mid-February.
In mid-January, there was a temporary supply setback that EU officials say was largely resolved last month. But there are still many doses missing that were due to arrive in December, the two EU officials said.
Meanwhile, the European Commission said it is taking steps to curb the growing cases of Covid vaccine fraud and bring those responsible to justice.
“In a crisis like this, there will always be people trying to take advantage of other people’s problems,” Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference.
“And we see a growing number of vaccine-related fraud and attempted fraud.
“We are fighting this trend,” he said, adding that the EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, is investigating and providing EU member states with advice on how to identify fraud.
He said it can be extremely risky to take the vaccines offered by black market traders because there is no guarantee that the cooling chain process has been adhered to for its journey from the factory to the syringe.
Plan to ‘respond quickly’ to Covid variants
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is launching an EU plan to respond to ongoing mutations in the Covid-19 virus.
In a tweet, he said that “vaccination is progressing in the European Union … to date, 33 million doses have been delivered.
“But we also have to prepare to respond quickly to new variants of the virus. Today we are launching our preparedness plan, HERA Incubator.”
Vaccination is progressing in the European Union.
To date, 33 million doses have been administered. But we also have to prepare to respond quickly to new variants of the virus.
Today we are launching our preparation plan, HERA Incubator. Https://t.co/0ObOlT3J8B
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 17, 2021
HERA Incubator is the name given to the new European plan to prepare for biodefense against Covid-19 variants.
It will work with researchers, biotechnology companies, manufacturers and public authorities in the EU and globally to detect new variants, provide incentives to develop new and adapted vaccines, accelerate the approval process for these vaccines and ensure the expansion of manufacturing capabilities.
The EU continues to export vaccines
Although the EU’s own supplies have fallen short, the European Commission has approved all export applications for Covid-19 vaccines, mainly from Pfizer / BioNTech, since it established its mechanism to monitor flows.
In the period from January 30 to February 16, the EU gave the green light to 57 applications for the export of vaccines to 24 countries, including Britain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Commission spokeswoman said today. .
Before the monitoring scheme was established, the bloc had already exported millions of vaccines to Israel, Britain and Canada, among others, mainly from Pfizer, according to customs data cited in an EU document seen by Reuters.
Israel has injected the first dose of vaccine into more than 75% of its population, figures from Our World in Data, based at the University of Oxford, show.
Britain’s figure is over 20%. EU countries on average have vaccinated only about 5% of their population, according to Our World in Data.
[ad_2]