BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union’s dispute with AstraZeneca intensified on Wednesday, with the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company denying the EU’s claim that it had given up on negotiations on the supply of vaccines.
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it still plans to meet with EU officials in Brussels later in the day. The comments came after EU officials said the company had informed the bloc that it would not attend a meeting to discuss postponing vaccine commitments – the third of those talks in a few days.
“The AstraZeneca representative announced this morning, informed us this morning, that his participation has not been confirmed, it is not happening,” said Dana Spinant, spokesman for the European Commission.
The dispute between AstraZeneca and the EU has raised concerns about vaccine nationalism, as countries desperate to end the pandemic and return to normal vie for limited supplies of precious vaccines.
The latest disagreement between the two sides came after AstraZeneca rejected the EU’s accusation that the company had failed to honor its commitments to provide coronavirus vaccines. AstraZeneca said the figures in its contract with the EU were targets that could not be met due to problems in the rapid expansion of production capacity.
Chief Executive Pascal Soriot made the comments in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, after days of criticism from EU leaders furious at the news that AstraZeneca’s initial shipments would be less than anticipated.
The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical said last week that it planned to cut initial deliveries in the EU from 80 million to 31 million doses due to reduced yield in the production process.
“Our contract is not a contractual commitment,” said Soriot. “It is the best effort. Basically, we said that we will do our best, but we cannot guarantee that we will succeed. In fact, to get there, we’re a little late. “
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it understands and shares “the frustration that the initial delivery volumes for our vaccine delivered to the European Union will be less than anticipated”.
On Monday, the EU threatened to impose strict export controls in just a few days on COVID-19 vaccines made in the bloc.
The EU, which has 450 million citizens and the economic and political influence of the world’s largest trade bloc, is lagging far behind countries like Israel and Britain in launching coronavirus vaccines for its healthcare professionals and the most vulnerable people. . This despite there being more than 400,000 confirmed virus deaths since the pandemic began.
The shortfall in planned deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine is coming at the same time as a slowdown in the distribution of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, as the company upgrades production facilities at a factory in Belgium.
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Kirka reported from London.
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