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VILNIUS: Europe urged pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday (January 26) to meet their commitments to supply coronavirus vaccines as short delivery and delays dim hopes for a quick fix to COVID-19 and talks about blocking protectionism and hoarding.
Countries around the world, eager to restart economies and restart travel before the European summer, hailed the rapid development of vaccines as the best chance to escape the year-long pandemic, which has killed more than 2.1 millions of people.
But vaccine launches in the European Union have been slow compared to countries in other regions and have been plagued with problems, including disruptions in supply chains.
AstraZeneca, which developed its project with the University of Oxford, said last Friday that it would cut supplies to the EU in the first quarter of this year, a move that a senior EU official said meant a 60 percent reduction to 31 million doses for the block.
US drugmaker Pfizer said there would be a temporary impact on shipments from late January to early February.
“Europe invested billions to help develop the world’s first COVID-19 vaccines. To create a truly global common good,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
“And now, companies must comply. They must fulfill their obligations,” added the EU chief executive.
READ: New Warning on COVID-19 Vaccine Supplies Raises EU Concern
READ: EU Crashes With AstraZeneca On COVID-19 Vaccine Deliveries Amid ‘Supply Shock’
EU member states could take AstraZeneca to court for breach of supply contracts if it fails to meet its schedule, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said.
“The possibility must be evaluated and must be coordinated between the EU countries,” the minister told Reuters through his spokesman.
The European Commission will finalize a proposal by the end of the week to require pharmaceutical companies to register their exports of vaccines from the EU, and says it has no plans to impose an export ban.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the goal was simply to increase transparency.
READ: AstraZeneca to reduce EU COVID vaccine deliveries by 60% in Q1
READ: Pfizer cuts COVID-19 vaccine deliveries by up to half in some EU countries
AstraZeneca said that initial deliveries to the EU would fall short of anticipated volumes due to a production problem.
“Initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain,” a company spokesperson said in a written statement last Friday, but declined. provide details.
UK ‘CONFIDENT’ OF SUPPLIES
AstraZeneca has offered to advance some deliveries to the EU and the bloc has asked the company if it can divert doses from Britain to make up the shortfall, European officials told Reuters.
Health Minister Matt Hancock said Britain, which left the EU, could work with the bloc to ensure there are no disruptions, and that rejecting nationalism and protectionism for vaccines is important.
“I am confident that we can work with the EU to ensure that while transparency is welcome, … no blockers are put in,” he said at an event organized by the Chatham House think tank, adding that he had spoken with the CEOs of Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
“… But I would urge all international partners to collaborate and work closely together, and I believe that protectionism is not the right approach in the midst of a pandemic,” Hancock said.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described unequal access to vaccines last week as a “catastrophic moral failure,” and urged countries and manufacturers to distribute doses more fairly across the world. world.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said ensuring fair distribution was essential.
“It has become even clearer to me that before we have to choose a multilateral approach, that a self-isolating approach will not solve our problems,” he told the World Economic Forum virtual summit via video link.
“We see that first of all on the issue of vaccination, as it is the route out of the pandemic.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking at the same forum, urged rich countries not to stockpile vaccines.
“The rich countries of the world went out and got big doses,” he said. “… Some countries even acquired up to four times more than their population needs … to the exclusion of other countries.”
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