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“It is difficult to imagine such a large number of vaccines so close to us,” said Daniel Natalia, mayor of the medieval city. This city, before becoming a center for the production of medicines, was the summer resort of the Pope.
When word of the unexpected find spread on March 24, immediately after the inspection, the eyes of the world turned to the city, an hour’s drive south of Rome.
That night, the provincial police urgently sent an alert to an Italian intelligence unit known as DIGOS, which investigates organized crime, terrorism and kidnappings. News about desired vaccines could “cause acute or unintended reactions from a variety of audiences,” according to a Bloomberg News warning. Calls for increased patrols in the bottling plant with vaccines for an official value of 116-145 million euros. AMERICAN DOLLAR.
29 million Vaccine doses and the resulting puzzle have plunged the city of Ananjo into an even deeper dispute by the European Union with AstraZeneca, which the Community says is not meeting its obligations to the EU.
The EU launched an inspection after concerns that the vaccines could be exported to the UK.
AstraZeneca’s response that they were targeting the EU and developing countries did not give the Community much impression that the company was not open.
“Cheated”
“European citizens feel misled by some pharmaceutical companies,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told his fellow EU leaders in a virtual meeting on Thursday, without specifically mentioning AstraZeneca.
Draghi has been a militant, at least by the moderate standards of the former head of the European Central Bank (ECB), from the moment he learned that the mountain of vaccines was not considered the furthest from his post.
On Friday, he raised the issue again during a press conference in Rome.
“I have the impression that some companies, I will not mention the names, have sold their products two or three times,” he said, raising his left eyebrow and stretching the right corner of his lips in a curved smile.
Draghi, 73, who avoids naming specific companies, said he had signed up to get vaccinated with AstraZeneca next week.
European leaders are still trying to figure out whether the vaccines found in Annanja mean they will be deprived of some of the vaccines or simply don’t understand the pharmaceutical manufacturer’s complex supply chain. AstraZeneca’s latest promise is to deliver € 30 million to the EU. vaccine dose in the current quarter, which is only about 25%. initial commitment.
AstraZeneca, for its part, says there is no secret about vaccines in Ananji.
“It is wrong to call this vaccine stockpile a stockpile,” he said. said the British-Swedish company, adding that the bottling process is complex and that quality control is necessary when filling the bottles.
Contrary to reports in the Italian daily La Stampa that the vaccine doses were “hidden” and possibly being prepared for export to the UK, AstraZeneca said. Vaccine doses are destined for Europe, and another 13 million – developing countries under the COVAX program.
Phone call
However, the paranoia revealed by this incident only exacerbates the crisis of confidence that eats away at AstraZeneca’s relationship with governments over licensing regulators and supplying vaccines.
The situation also highlights the danger of a combination of vaccine nationalism and a devastating and deadly economic pandemic.
Ananjo’s story began on Saturday night, March 20, with Draghi explained to the Italian parliament that day. “I received a call from the President of the European Commission about some batches of vaccines that were missing from the Commission summaries and that were stored at the Annan plant. An inspection was offered, “the prime minister said.
Draghi said he later called the Minister of Health, who had a specialized food and medicine unit in the Carabinieri Military Police. Its members immediately went to the vaccine bottling plant and the next morning, after working all night, they identified batches of vaccines, Draghi said.
Since then, part of the vaccine doses have gone to AstraZeneca’s distribution center in Belgium, “but the remaining batches continue to be monitored,” he said.
450 million doses
Although it questions about 29 million. The doses in the EU summaries remain, it should come as no surprise that tens of millions of doses are stored at the Ananjo plant. The plant is owned by Catalent Inc., an American pharmaceutical company based in Somerset, New York, which announced a $ 450 million deal in June last year. AstraZeneca vaccines in glass vials.
Bloomberg Businessweek said during a visit to the plant last July that 24,000 bottles could be “baked” per hour via conveyor lines. Since each bottle contains ten doses of vaccine, the plant was able to bottle 50 million. Mario Gargiulob, head of Catalent’s European Biological Assessment Group, spoke at the time.
At the Catalent plant, which occupies an area of 28,000 square meters. meters, vaccine production work is boiled for several months.
Workers add the final ingredients to the AstraZeneca vaccine mix, pour them into sterilized vials, direct the load to an inspection machine where each vial is viewed through nine cameras at different angles, and then place the vials in boxes ready to go. his transport.
Hidden amount
Just because vaccine doses are stored in production facilities, especially in large quantities, does not mean that they are ready for shipment. It may take Mr. Gargiulob a good month and a half to say so in July before the entire bottling process is completed, from filling to placing on the market.
That may explain why Catalent’s manager appeared upset on March 24 when asked by phone about “hidden” doses of vaccines found at his factory. Dosages at the Ananji plant make up the bulk of the “drugs,” some of which are used in the bottling process, and the part that is already bottled is checked for quality and prepared for shipment, he said. .
The total number of doses of vaccine at the factory changes daily and could have reached 29 million on the day of the inspection. “And there could be 19 million the next day,” added a Catalent executive.
Meanwhile, the people of Annanjo, who, like other Europeans, do not wait to be vaccinated to return to a normal life, have a host of hidden vaccines on their side – sweet discovery times.
Not only that, millions of doses will soon accumulate there. Three days before the inspection, Catalent announced that it was expanding its agreement with another vaccine manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, for the bottling, finishing, packaging and inspection of its single-dose COVID vaccine, located in Ananj.
Be that as it may, it is still unclear why European officials and AstraZeneca are not talking about vaccine doses in Ananji. And this miscommunication is likely to further warm your relationship.
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