The current number of vaccines confuses not only Lithuania, there are even several ways to speed up the process

At the committee meeting, the Ministry of Health (SAM) announced that Lithuania was considering approving one of the vaccines on its own, without waiting for a joint European decision.

When can you expect a breakthrough?

At the meeting, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, head of NSGK, listed current issues and raised a question that was frequently discussed: if the EU is not late.

“The key moment was to analyze analytically the EU procurement mechanism to assess its strengths and weaknesses. The reason for doing so is because a serious debate has started, including in Germany, that the EU is late, ”said L. Kasčiūnas, director of the committee.

The parliamentarian said that it is not clear why other countries receive higher amounts of the vaccine than the EU. He assured that the joint purchase of the vaccine across the European Union was the right move, but questions still arose.

“But the numbers that we see, if it is late here, what bottlenecks have worked here, that the EU has those numbers, why other countries have different numbers,” he said.

So far, the world leader is Israel, which has the highest number of people vaccinated against the coronavirus.

According to the research website “Our World in Figures”, Israel, with a population of 9 million, leads the world in terms of the number of people vaccinated per 100 inhabitants, followed by Bahrain and the United Kingdom. The first of two doses of the coronavirus vaccine needed to build immunity has already been given to approximately 1.37 million people. people, he announced Tuesday.

“There is much talk that the certification process of the European Medicines Agency is slower. Perhaps it could be accelerated,” commented the head of the committee.

L. Kasčiūnas raised the question of when a vaccine breakthrough can be expected to enter Lithuania. Maybe Lithuania can do something on its own?

“When can we expect a breakthrough? (…) Does the State have independent strategies without this mechanism? What if we allow private medical institutions to buy from companies? ”Asked the director of NSGK.

Suppliers compete for delivery fees

At the committee meeting, Vice Minister of Health Živilė Simonaitytė stated that the coronavirus vaccines developed by Moderna and AstraZeneca should start traveling to the country in the near future.

Gytis Andriulionis, director of the State Agency for Drug Control (VVKT), told the meeting that most vaccine manufacturers compete for delivery terms and details.

“Vaccine manufacturers who contract with the EC and Member States, the price is not the competing element, it competes in terms and delivery details,” G. Andriulionis said at the meeting.

“Salvation for Lithuania that the common centralized mechanism has been launched,” said G. Andriulionis.

He said that if Lithuania had participated only in the purchase of vaccines, it would have been simply catastrophic.

There are currently 63 clinical trials of vaccine candidates worldwide, with an additional 172 vaccine candidates in the preclinical trial phase.

“Each manufacturer was discussed individually to present an offer, because many companies did not present them because they want to deliver vaccines in a commercial context,” Andriulionis said about the vaccine purchase procedure.

Lithuania’s estimated contribution is 2.5 million euros and contracts have been concluded with 7 vaccine developers.

G. Andriulionis explained at the committee meeting that the main purchase of the vaccine from the countries is subsidized by the EC, and if the country wants additional doses of the vaccine, the subsidy is not received.

“The deadlines are one of the most confidential aspects, because that is what competes. Absolutely the majority (suppliers, aut. P.) have clear deadlines for quarterly deliveries throughout the EU. That amount that arrives during the quarter is distributed to the producer in a proportional way, to all countries at the same time ”, he said.

“Lithuania is in a position to buy an additional BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine,” said the expert.

It is possible that 12 million purchases of vaccines will be reached in Lithuania in the near future.

Pace – too slow

Committee member Saulius Skvernelis asked why the EC and Member States funded the development of vaccines but did not receive the largest quantities of vaccines.

“Doesn’t it appear that the EC and the Member States have financed the development of vaccines with their own contributions, and when the sales started, other non-EU countries were able to obtain more of those vaccines? Was it not the case that we We, the EC and the Member States, we fund the research, but we are not at the top in terms of supply ?, asked S. Skvernelis.

He said speed isn’t rewarding either.

“The pace of approval of the vaccine is brutally slow, which discredits the whole idea of ​​the EU,” said the politician.

The application rate of SAM vaccines is unsatisfactory

Vice Minister of Health Ž. Simonaitytė stated that SAM is not satisfied with the speed of approval of the vaccine.

“Because of the speed in making decisions, he is not satisfied with us either, it is natural that he wants it faster. But we are probably not a single vaccine approval specialist, it is not possible to objectively assess whether someone was not in a hurry or was working too slow. In the future, these issues will arise not only in Lithuania, ”said Deputy Minister Ž. Simonaitytė.

G. Andriulionis, director of the State Drug Control Service, responded to criticism about the excessive length of the vaccine approval process.

“It just came to our attention then. For my part, I will add that the European Medicines Agency does not carry out the mandatory registration of medicines, the company itself must request it. Pfizer and Moderna have done so, and only in December they requested the registration of their product It usually takes about a year to examine this, and in this case it was all done in a month, the speed is unprecedented, ”said G. Andriulionis.

He recalled that the vaccine was marketed in the UK without registration. Therefore, the country has assumed absolute and full responsibility.

“There is a section in our Pharmacy Law that allows the Minister of Health to allow the supply of a drug not approved in the country. But those decisions are really risky, “he explained.

The deputy minister stated that Lithuania would find out if the country could approve the AstraZeneca vaccine and use it alone.

“You know, we will do it as soon as possible. But we need to assess a series of circumstances.” It’s not that simple, “said the deputy minister.

At the same time, he hinted that if an unapproved vaccine were provided in Lithuania, it could raise even more questions about “antivirals”.

“Will our approval and authorization be separate, or will it not be treated as our competence with other Member States?” Simonaitytė.

He assured that private institutions could try to buy the vaccine and supply it in Lithuania.

“As for (private institutions, aut. P.), if the Lithuanian private institutions will be able to participate in the approved vaccines lottery and applaud the EU, UK and others, we will congratulate them, all is well,” said the deputy minister. Health Ž. . Simonaitytė.

Delphi recalls that so far, three shipments of vaccines manufactured by BioNTech and Pfizer have reached Lithuania, in total several tens of thousands of doses.

Health Minister A. Dulkys told LRT radio on Tuesday that it is currently known that regular shipments of vaccines will arrive in Lithuania every week for the next three months.

The BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine is the first and so far the only one authorized in the European Union.