[ad_1]
The EEA has also granted permits to the Pfizer-BioNtech plant in Marburg, Germany, and the manufacturing plant in Moderna, Switzerland.
Brussels is threatening to block the export of vaccines to the UK from the Halix plant in Leiden until the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca fulfills its commitment to supply the promised quantities of vaccines to the Community.
“The new manufacturing site has been approved for the production of the AstraZeneca active ingredient COVID-19 vaccine,” the Amsterdam-based EVA said in a statement.
According to the agency, including the Halix plant in Leiden, the Netherlands, the total number of licensed active substance companies will increase to four.
The “significant” approval of the new production sites “will increase production capacity and (improve) the supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU,” according to the report.
Stela Kiriakides, European Health Commissioner, told AFP that the new vaccines from the AstraZeneca plant will be available a few days after the EEA decision.
According to her, the approval process is “accelerated.”
“We now expect the vaccines produced at this plant to be delivered to EU countries in the coming days, in line with AstraZeneca’s contractual obligations to European citizens,” the commissioner said in a statement to AFP.
Some EU countries have been “badly affected by the disappointing decline in vaccine supplies from AstraZeneca,” Kiriakides said.
“If it weren’t for the supply of AstraZeneca, vaccination rates in the EU could have almost doubled,” he added.
The Dutch pharmaceutical plant has found itself at the center of a heated dispute, and the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims it is a link in the British vaccine supply chain.
But EC chief Ursula von der Leyen warned Thursday that she would ban companies, including AstraZeneca, from exporting vaccines to other countries until they meet the bloc’s commitments.
Despite the harsh tone from the EU, Community vaccine production centers in the Netherlands and Belgium are timid about the embargo, fearing that disruption of the global vaccine supply chain could jeopardize production from other companies.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday that London and Brussels could agree to an exchange of vaccines for the weekend “or shortly after” to avoid an EU embargo.
However, he added that he had warned Johnson that the Netherlands would implement any EU decision to suspend Halix’s exports.
“I explained to him that this is not the case in Europe and that this is not a bilateral decision between us and the UK,” Rutte said.
[ad_2]
