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KEY PERSON: Richard Bergström negotiates vaccines with the EU and provides vaccines to Norway through Sweden. Photo: Pontus Orre
AstraZeneca’s delivery failure is well beyond the EU and Norway. Now there is a heated discussion about how the EU countries should react.
– It is really true that we have so many vaccines: the second half of 2021 we have twice as many as the first. So we will fix this. This will be resolved, but then the only question will be whether it will be June, July or August, Swedish vaccine coordinator Richard Bergström tells VG.
Bad news has been repeatedly reported about deliveries of the vaccine to AstraZeneca. Now vaccination with this vaccine has also been stopped in Norway and several countries, because it is being investigated whether there may be a connection with blood clots and the vaccine or not.
With regard to the latter, Bergström refers to the pharmaceutical authorities. Its role is to negotiate doses with companies on behalf of the EU and Norway. The situation there is also dramatic:
News came this week that Norway will receive one million fewer AstraZeneca doses than FHI expected in the second quarter of 2021; it will be only 670,000. This is the second time that forecasts have been drastically lowered; First, Norway had estimated 1.2 million. doses of this vaccine only in February.
Here’s what went wrong, according to Bergström:
Started in january
In January, the first message came that AstraZeneca was slashing what they could offer, because they were having trouble getting enough doses of biological processes from a subcontractor in Europe.
According to FHI, the news delayed Norway’s vaccination by up to two months.
This led to a major dispute between the company and the EU, which demanded that they deliver on what they had promised.
– We do not accept it with the fact that they had problems with the Belgian factory and that they could not do anything about it. The AstraZeneca CEO attended a board meeting, where I sit, and explained. The European Commission insisted that the doses be found elsewhere, Bergström says.
Then AstraZeneca came back with a solution on how they could recoup some of the loss, it says: they should recoup some doses produced outside the EU.
– Must be a mix of US, UK and Indian doses. So that’s what we expected: that we would get around 10 million additional doses in March from these three places, and then in the second quarter we would get 75 million from Belgium and 75 million from outside of Europe.
MAJOR CHANGES: Norway will receive significantly fewer AstraZeneca doses in 2021 than originally assumed. Photo: TIZIANA FABI / AFP
This is what the EU had until Thursday of this week. On Thursday morning the message came that it couldn’t be solved anyway, according to Bergström. Doses do not enter the EU.
– There were nine million doses from these countries that were due to arrive next week. But they are absent. And when we’re not allowed to import them, we can’t hope to get them later either.
This means that the EU will receive about half the AstraZeneca doses of what they thought in the future. This is not a problem for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
– It is a completely different matter when it comes to Pfizer, where the active substance is added in Germany and produced in Belgium. Pfizer is only produced in Europe and the US And the same applies to Moderna, says Bergström, adding:
– You can imagine the debate that there will be if we can allow exports when others do not allow exports, but the EU does.
– Unbelievably serious
According to Bergström, what is now being debated in the EU is how to deal with the refusal of other countries to import doses of Astrazeneca, at the same time that large quantities of the coveted Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in particular are being exported to other countries.
According to figures published by the European Commission, the EU has exported up to 34,090,267 doses of vaccines to 31 from the end of January until now.
One of the countries receiving doses is the United Kingdom, which is in the middle of the conflict with the EU over AstraZeneca doses.
– Half of what Pfizer produces in Belgium is exported outside the EU, including 9 million to the UK, which does not allow us to source AstraZeneca. There are a number of politicians and countries who think that once we have sent nine million doses to the UK, how can we continue that when they block us?
VACCINE CENTER: Many vaccines against AstraZeneca have been administered in the UK. Here he is vaccinated in a center in Midstone, England. Photo: ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP
The EU has introduced a mechanism that means that to export a vaccine, you must have approval from the country from which the vaccine is shipped, in addition to the EU Commission.
The ability to reject exports has so far only been used once: in early March Italy stopped shipping 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca to Australia, with the approval of the European Commission.
– Then Italy said they would not allow exports as AstraZeneca does not deliver within the contract. There is a big difference here, says Bergström.
– In general, starting to block exports is a completely different matter, and it is incredibly serious.
According to Bergström, there are a few individual countries that advocate precisely that:
– The active ingredient in the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine comes from the Netherlands. The most radical comments will be “let’s block Janssen”: America is completely dependent on him.
In the United States, tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are available. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to approve the vaccine, as have the EU and many other countries. Doses are available pending the results of clinical trials, writes the New York Times.
Bergström does not believe that the EU will stop all exports of vaccines. But the heated discussion continues at the diplomatic level, and with the bad news about this week’s AstraZeneca installment, discussions are on fire.
– Europe is a great power when it comes to medicines and vaccines. We buy a lot of low-cost drugs in China, but new advanced biologics and vaccines – Europe is very big there. And many countries around the world depend on vaccines from Europe. So you should think twice before stopping exports, he says.
Think Johnson & Johnson Will Deliver
Without AstraZeneca doses, either because they cannot be imported or because vaccination has been suspended, vaccination will be delayed in many EU countries.
The next big deal to go into effect is the Johnson & Johnson deal, which was recently approved for use in the EU. They will deliver 55 million doses to the EU – 900,000 to Norway according to NIPH – in the second quarter.
At the same time, FHI has been concerned that it has not received clear deadlines from the company.
– They prefer to promise too little and deliver too much than the other way around. There is a high demand and it is difficult to satisfy everyone, but there are new contracts in progress in Europe with escalation, says Bergström about it.
At the same time, you are not concerned that AstraZeneca’s history is repeating itself now with Johnson & Johnson:
– In this case, the company says they will be able to deliver what they are supposed to do with production outside of the US They plan to deliver 55 million doses in the second quarter, and now it seems realistic, he says.
– So you consider it safer because they don’t depend on being allowed to export anything from the US?
– Yes absolutely. If we had trusted the United States, it would have been a big question mark if it would work.
– It looks much better than this summer.
Bergström says it is sad that there were unexpected problems with AstraZeneca. At the same time, he is optimistic:
– We have not put all the eggs in one basket, we did not even know if this vaccine would be approved. That is why we have invested a lot, and it is clear that a vaccine should not be approved or withdrawn from the market, then it will be like that. So we have other alternatives, he says.
– In short, the situation looks much better than this summer, when many thought that this would not work and that mRNA vaccines would not be approved. In reality, this is an unsurpassed success story.
In Sweden, the goal has been for everyone over 18 to get vaccinated on June 30. In Norway, the goal was that everyone should have received the first dose in the same month.
– Then comes the question of whether we can do this or not. But it is not the case that vaccine delivery stops on the night of June 30. A lot of people only talk about June, and that we only have Pfizer and Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. But Pfizer offers even more in the third quarter, and then we’ll get double Janssen as well. Just go up, he says.
Read more about the vaccines that are relevant to the EU and Norway by clicking on them below:
