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The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has warned the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca that it must comply with its contractual obligations in delivering supplies of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ms. Von der Leyen spoke to AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot by phone this morning.
“He made it clear that he expects AstraZeneca to abide by the contractual agreements provided for in the advance purchase agreement,” commission spokesman Eric Mamer said.
“He reminded Mr Soriot that the EU has invested significant amounts in the company in advance precisely to ensure that production increases even before the European Medicines Agency (EMA) delivers conditional market authorization.
“Of course, production problems can appear with a complex vaccine, but we hope the company will find solutions and take advantage of all possible flexibilities to deliver quickly.”
Stella Kyriakides, the EU health commissioner, has also written to the company following Friday’s announcement that it would be short on vaccine supplies.
AstraZeneca representatives will soon hold a virtual meeting with the Steering Board, made up of health officials from the member states and the European Commission.
The World Health Organization’s special envoy for Covid-19, Dr. David Nabarro, has said that he understands people’s frustration and disappointment over AstraZeneca’s supply shortages, but that vaccine production is not. simple and this is “part of what happens”.
These shortcomings generally mean that some efforts are being made to improve the quality of production, he said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne show, Dr. Nabarro said that there will be batches or production lines that will prove to be not working properly, and this must be accepted as part of reality.
He warned that there will be supply disruptions and that this will not be a perfect process.
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