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AstraZeneca’s chief executive has dismissed suggestions that the UK is being unfairly prioritized for doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, in a broad interview that revealed “glitches” that have limited production.
Pascal Soriot offered the most in-depth insight yet into a scientific process that has crept into the political sphere, as leaders in Brussels and several EU capitals expressed anger that Europe will not get the vaccine as quickly as expected.
He also spoke about the “single dose” strategy and the efficacy of the vaccine against newer variants. This is what we learned from Soriot’s comments, submitted to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Why are EU leaders angry?
The EU ordered 80 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of March, but the Anglo-Swedish company has said it can only deliver 31 million doses, and that deliveries in the next quarter will also likely be 50% lower. .
The growing dispute, which comes ahead of Friday’s European Medicines Agency decision on the approval of the vaccine, has even led to suggestions from Brussels that exports of doses from the EU could be banned.
On Wednesday, the European Commission said AstraZeneca had pulled out of the talks scheduled for the night, only for the company to deny it minutes later, insisting the summit was still underway.
What does the company say?
AstraZeneca’s contract with the EU is based on “best effort,” Soriot said, meaning the company is obliged to produce as much vaccine as it can, but is not legally bound to fulfill the order in the volumes that the EU. wanted to.
However, on Wednesday, European leaders said Soriot had misrepresented the contract and insisted that the company had signed an “advance purchase agreement” promising it had sufficient capacity to deliver the order.
Why have there been delays?
AstraZeneca has experienced production problems at the plants that make the vaccine for Europe, particularly at a site in Belgium.
“We are basically two months behind what we wanted,” Soriot said.
“The sites that have the lowest productivity on the web are the sites that are serving Europe,” he added.
The vaccine is made in two separate phases. The first is the “drug”, the vaccine itself, manufactured for European distribution at plants in the Netherlands and Belgium. The second is “medicine”, where the vaccine is brought to plants in Italy and Germany and placed in vials to be distributed to different countries and ultimately to doctors.
The production problem, Soriot said, is with the first “drug substance” phase, the manufacture of the vaccine itself. AstraZeneca uses extensive “cell cultures” in batches of up to 2000 liters. The virus is injected into cell cultures and the cells produce the vaccine.
However, some plants produce a much higher vaccine yield than others, up to three times more.
Why is the UK not affected?
It is, or at least it was.
“We’ve also had early issues like this in the UK supply chain,” Soriot said.
The difference, he said, is that the UK signed its contract for 100 million doses much earlier. As a result, there has been more time to fix production problems, which means that vaccine production is higher.
“So with the UK we have had an additional three months to fix all the technical problems that we are experiencing,” he said.
Why did the UK move faster?
Soriot declined to comment on the EU schedule. But he said that when AstraZeneca began developing the vaccine in conjunction with the University of Oxford, Oxford had already started working with the UK government on plans for how to distribute the vaccine.
AstraZeneca was able to take the Oxford processes and scale them. This advantage is what made it possible to solve technical production problems in the United Kingdom in time for the launch of the vaccine.
When technical problems persist on European sites, the subsequent signing of the contract means that there has not yet been time to fix them.
Can doses be diverted from the UK to Europe?
In a word, no.
“The UK deal was reached in June, three months earlier than the European one,” Soriot said.
“As you can imagine, the UK government said that supply coming out of the UK supply chain would go to the UK first. Basically, that’s right. “
AstraZeneca’s contract with the EU raises the possibility that some of the UK-made vaccine could be supplied to the EU, he said, but only after the contract with the UK government has been fulfilled.
This, Soriot said, is “fair enough.”
Is the “one dose” strategy sensible?
There has been disagreement on whether the UK was right to adopt a strategy to ensure that as many people as possible get their first dose and wait longer for a second, rather than administering both in a short period of time.
Soriot said he could not speak for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, but said the “one dose” strategy was “absolutely the right path” for AstraZeneca.
The company believes that one dose is 100% effective in stopping serious illness and hospitalizations and up to 73% efficient overall. He said a second dose would be needed for longer-term immunity.
What about the new variants?
Soriot was asked about early signs that some vaccines are not as effective in newer variants. The South African variant has been of particular concern. Soriot noted that the “neutralizing effect” of Moderna’s vaccine has been shown to be six times less. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is still being tested, but he said it was “logical” to expect reduced efficacy.
However, he said existing vaccines could probably still control the virus enough to prevent serious illness, while the company will continue to tailor vaccines to respond to new mutations.
