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Objective: to bring more vaccines than Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to Italy, for a total of 18 million doses. Negotiations are underway, with the participation of the European Commission, always bearing in mind that our country is entitled to a 13.46 percent share of purchases. In other words: Italy and Europe are trying to source larger quantities of the two American vaccines (actually, Pfizer-BioNTech’s also involves a German company).
READ ALSO Vaccine, doses distributed according to the population of the countries
THE RACE
Let’s see in more detail. Moderna has promised Italy 1.3 million doses in the first quarter, 4.7 in the second, 4.7 in the third, for a total of 10.7. With an increase of about 50 percent, another 5 million are added. It is not easy, because Moderna, an American, had the economic support of the Trump administration and therefore has a privileged relationship with the United States. With Biden’s inauguration, the dialogue seems less problematic. It must be said that to date Moderna’s vaccine, already validated by the FDA (the US authority), has not yet received the green light from Ema (the European agency). But yes is almost taken for granted, in light of the outcome of the FDA investigation, so much so that the EMA meeting on Moderna was moved up to January 4, in a week. This vaccine uses a new messenger RNA technology, but does not require the cold chain like the Pfizer-BioNTech product. And it is not a trivial matter: yesterday in Germany, some districts of Upper Franconia had to stop vaccination precisely because the alarm sounded because conservation at minus 70 degrees was not guaranteed.
The search for new supplies from Italy, however, has become more urgent also in light of the confrontation that bounced yesterday over the first supplies sent to the countries of the European Union: 9,750 doses to Italy, 150,000 to Germany. How is it possible? Already on Saturday the Ministry of Health had denied this disparity, arguing that there is confusion because the supply rates are simply changing, so much so that 470,000 new doses will already arrive in Italy at this time. Commissioner Domenico Arcuri reiterated yesterday: there is no violation of the agreement between the European countries that have bought all the vaccines from the different suppliers together. “By Vax day, Germany had 11 thousand doses. The 150 thousand that have been delivered are part of the subsequent supplies that will arrive in our country as of December 28. There is no discrimination. The allocation was made at EU level on the percentage of population, both for the day of vax and for subsequent supplies when it is fully operational. Our distribution plan is to have 450,000 weekly doses starting tomorrow. And they will go directly to the administration sites ». Bottom line: In these hours, Pfizer trucks will return and deliver to 20 locations in all regions. But certainly the rate of 450-470 thousand weekly doses is not enough in a country of 60 million inhabitants. That’s why the “plus 50 percent” bid is also underway with Pfizer-BioNTech.
In that case, given that the current deal is for 27 million vials, the goal is another 13-14 million. In the best case, therefore, adding the additional amounts from Moderna and Pfizer would achieve a boost of 18 million doses. It will not be easy, since the search for the vaccine has begun all over the world. There is another front.
BEYOND THE MANGA
In the United Kingdom, the British authority could, already this week (there are those who even plan today), approve the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford in collaboration with the Italian Irbm. Mass vaccination in the United Kingdom with doses of AstraZeneca will begin next Monday in the event of a green light, in parallel to the one already started with Pfizer. This measure may embarrass Europe, given that large quantities have been bought from the British-Swedish multinational, 40 million doses for Italy alone. Yesterday AstraZeneca assured that the effectiveness of the product is 95 percent, therefore similar to Moderna and Pfizer. However, the experts explain that during the experimentation there were some problems, which require further investigation. This slowed down the EMA’s response that could be pronounced in the second half of January. Nothing is taken for granted.
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