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The authorization from the European pharmaceutical agency EMA for the AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to arrive in Epiphany. Before the assumptions of the last few days (there was the fear of a change in the ok at the end of January), but still behind the competition from Pfizer. However, Oxford applied for the permit well in advance in October. Why is there still no green light? Is it possible that the half-dose “yellow” less capable of making the vaccine more effective requires so many checks to exit the company that it seemed to be in pole position at stake?
It is suspected that behind the freezing of AstraZeneca’s practices there are more political reasons than purely scientific reasons, as is easy to imagine when there is so much money at stake and what the WHO has called “liquid gold”.
Also because, even if they are not scientists, it is easy to guess that if AstraZeneca had actually obtained authorization first, Pfizer, which made a much more expensive vaccine and infinitely less easy to store, would have had a lot of trouble putting in even a single batch of doses . So what happened behind the scenes of the international tug of war? Is there a political design on the authorization of vaccines and their distribution? After all, Pfizer was the key to the US election campaign and the credibility of new President Joe Biden, who promised a million daily doses to Americans, still depends on his work. Point number two: if England had approved the AstraZeneca study in October, when it received the documents, it would have had to split the doses with the rest of Europe. Now that he can act according to Brexit, he can keep the doses produced all for him, up to the authorization of distribution in Europe. Therefore, it is not out of the question that putting AstraZeneca in the tail of Pfizer has had its benefits for many.
Certainly not for Italy, which instead believed in the Oxford / AstraZeneca project from the beginning and has already opted for 16 million doses for the first three months of the year and another 24 million for the following quarter. What will happen if with the postponement of Ema’s authorization these doses are not available in the schedule? The extraordinary commissioner Domenico Arcuri confirmed in recent days that the EU is negotiating a new supply of the Pfizer vaccine. For Italy, it would translate into an additional 13.8 million doses and allow us to “get by” despite the slowdown in the AstraZeneca schedule. However, this is nothing compared to the 30 million additional doses requested by Germany. An offer that goes beyond the quotas set by Brussels for each state based on its population. But German Minister Spahn uses a parallel track and makes agreements directly with pharmaceutical companies to speed up times and not create setbacks in the vaccine plan. How is it possible? Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte maintains that it is not allowed to negotiate supplies outside the EU agreements, but the facts deny this. “National purchases of the Covid vaccine are provided for by the EU framework agreement,” said the German minister. And behind the fast track, ça va sans dire, there is also a government that of the 750 million euros invested in German companies dedicated to the development of vaccines, has ceded half to BioNTech, which operates together with Pfizer.
