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The tension between the European Union and Britain over the supply of vaccines was not the fault of either party, but was due to AstraZeneca not delivering the doses it contracted to supply, an EU official said.
“The UK is not to blame. The EU is not to blame. It is AstraZenca,” the official said. “AstraZeneca has to deliver doses to its customers in the EU.”
The official also said that the EU has not formally blocked the shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines from a Dutch factory to the UK because no export request has been made, but such request would not be approved.
Earlier, another EU official said the European Union is rejecting requests from the British government to ship AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines produced at a factory in the Netherlands.
Britain has so far administered many more vaccines than EU countries in proportion to population.
“The British insist that the Halix plant in the Netherlands must deliver the pharmaceutical substance produced there. That does not work,” the official told Reuters.
The Leiden-based plant, run by subcontractor Halix, is listed as a vaccine supplier in both the contracts AstraZeneca has signed with Great Britain and the European Union.
“What is produced in Halix has to go to the EU,” the official added.
Britain has insisted that contracts must be respected.
“The European Commission will know that the rest of the world is looking at the commission, on how it behaves in this, and if contracts and commitments are broken, that is something very damaging for a trading bloc that prides itself on itself. the rules of law, “said British Defense Minister Ben Wallace.
The EU official said the bloc was not breaking any contracts.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to call on European leaders this week to dismiss any proposals to block exports of coronavirus vaccines to the UK.
Johnson is expected to contact his EU counterparts before a virtual summit on Thursday in which European leaders must consider the matter, The Financial Times reported.
UK government sources said Johnson spoke with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with Dutch and Belgian Prime Ministers Mark Rutte and Alexander De Croo last week.
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The EU threatened last week to block exports of Covid-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard the meager doses for its own citizens, and Ms Von der Leyen said the epidemiological situation was getting worse.
AstraZeneca has not yet sought EU approval for Halix, but the official and a second EU source said the application was on the way.
Without regulatory approval, the vaccines produced at Halix cannot be used in the EU.
An internal AstraZeneca document seen by Reuters shows that the company awaits EU approval on March 25.
AstraZeneca has declined to comment on the number of vaccines currently stored at Halix.
The EU official said the factory had already fired shots, but was unable to quantify production.
According to the EU contract with AstraZeneca, vaccines must be produced before approval and delivered immediately thereafter.
Two factories in Britain run by Oxford Biomedica and Cobra Biologics are also listed as EU suppliers in the contract with AstraZeneca, but no vaccine has been shipped from Britain to the EU so far, despite earlier requests from Brussels.
Officials have said Cobra is not fully operational.
AstraZeneca told EU officials that the UK is using a clause in its supply contract that prevents the export of its vaccines until the British market is fully served, EU officials said.
AstraZeneca vaccine 79% effective in US trial.
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is 79% effective in preventing Covid-19 and offers 100% protection against serious diseases, new data from a US-led trial have shown.
The jab, which has been the subject of controversy over concerns about links to very rare blood clots, is also 100% effective in keeping people out of the hospital with serious illnesses.
Some 32,449 people of all age groups participated in the phase three trial in the US, Chile and Peru, with a total of 141 cases of symptomatic Covid-19 reported.
The results showed that among people 65 and older, there was an 80% protection against the development of Covid-19.
The degree of effectiveness of the jab was even higher than that seen in Oxford-led clinical trials.
An independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) also did not identify vaccine-related safety issues.
He carried out a specific review of thrombotic events, as well as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), the specific type of cerebral blood clot that has been worrying Europe.
The DSMB found no increased risk of thrombosis among the 21,583 participants who received at least one dose of the vaccine. The specific CVST search found no cases in this trial.
Andrew Pollard, Professor of Pediatric Infection and Immunity and Principal Investigator of the Oxford University vaccine trial, said: “These results are great news as they show the remarkable efficacy of the vaccine in a new population and are consistent with the results of Essays conducted by Oxford.
“We can expect a strong impact against Covid-19 at all ages and for people of different backgrounds from the widespread use of the vaccine.”
Survey suggests confidence drop in AstraZeneca vaccine
Meanwhile, a new survey suggests that confidence in the vaccine in many European countries has plummeted following the controversy surrounding the jab in recent weeks.
The poll conducted by British YouGov pollsters in the week to March 18 found that most people in the largest member states of the European Union, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, now view the vaccine as unsafe.
Yet opinions on AstraZeneca’s jab remain overwhelmingly positive in Britain, where two-thirds of those surveyed said it is safe, compared to just 9% who believe it is not.
Earlier this month, several EU countries, including Ireland, suspended its use, awaiting a review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after dozens of isolated cases of blood clots and brain bleeds.
Last week, the EMA declared the AstraZeneca jab to be “safe and effective,” and similar endorsements were issued by the World Health Organization and the UK drug regulator.
That prompted European countries to resume administering the vaccine, but not before seriously damaging confidence in it.
In its survey, YouGov found that 55% of Germans now say the vaccine is unsafe, an increase of 15 points in one month, compared to 32% who consider it safe.
In France, which is already more averse to vaccines, 61% of those surveyed said it was not safe, while Italy and Spain saw a 27-point monthly increase in the number of people who said they did not trust the jab.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna did not see similar increases in safety fears for rival vaccines, YouGov said.
Pollsters interviewed 2,024 Germans and around 1,000 adults in each of the other countries.
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