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German vaccine manufacturer BioNTech has raised concerns about the shortage in the supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU.
Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, said the shortage is also due to the fact that the Moderna and Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccines have not yet been approved, thus creating a vacuum in the supply chain.
Chris Whitty, UK chief medical officer, has voiced similar concerns, warning that such delays could cause problems “for several months”, jeopardizing Britain’s response to the current health crisis.
Calls for the EU to approve the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine as soon as possible also come from Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn.
Earlier this week, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it was unlikely to authorize the jab in the next month. However, approval for Moderna’s mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine could arrive on January 6.
Meanwhile, some EU member states are coming under fire for slow launches of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Among them is France, where only 332 people were vaccinated in the first five days of the vaccine launch campaign.
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