BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union’s dispute with AstraZeneca over the supply of vaccines intensified on Wednesday, when the pharmaceutical company defended itself on allegations that it had reneged on contractual commitments and the two sides discussed plans for further negotiations.
AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot addressed the dispute for the first time, rejecting the EU’s claim that the company was not honoring its commitments to provide coronavirus vaccines. Soriot said the delivery numbers for AstraZeneca’s contract with the 27-country bloc were targets, not firm commitments, and could not be met due to problems in rapidly expanding production capacity.
“Our contract is not a contractual commitment,” said Soriot in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “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. “
After the interview was published, an EU spokesman said AstraZeneca had given up negotiations on Wednesday over problems with vaccine supplies, which AstraZeneca immediately denied. Hours later, the EU said the talks were back.
The fight also raised concerns about vaccine nationalism, as countries desperate to end the pandemic and return to normal struggle for limited supplies of the precious vaccines. On Monday, the EU threatened to place export controls on all vaccines made in its territory.
Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, rejected Soriot’s explanation for the delays, saying that “not being able to guarantee production capacity is against the letter and spirit of our agreement.”
“I ask AstraZeneca to do its utmost to rebuild trust, provide complete information and fulfill its contractual, social and moral obligations,” she said at a news conference in Brussels.
The EU, which has 450 million citizens and the economic and political influence of the world’s largest trade bloc, is lagging far behind behind countries like Israel and Britain in launching coronavirus vaccines for their health care professionals and the most vulnerable people. This despite there being more than 400,000 confirmed virus deaths since the pandemic began.
The EU has signed agreements for six different vaccines, but so far regulators have only authorized the use of both, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and the other from Moderna. The EU drug regulator will consider the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday.
AstraZeneca said last week that it plans to cut initial deliveries in the EU from 80 million to 31 million doses, due to reduced yield from its manufacturing process in Europe. This drew an angry response from the EU, which says it expects the company to deliver the full amount on time.
AstraZeneca is establishing more than a dozen regional supply chains worldwide to meet regional demand for its vaccine. Overall, AstraZeneca plans to deliver up to 3 billion doses to countries around the world by the end of 2021.
However, establishing each facility is a complicated process that involves training people and ensuring that each batch of vaccine is safe and effective. Sometimes this goes without a hitch, but in other cases there are problems, said Soriot.
“We trained them on how to manufacture,” he said. “And then, you know, some people are new to this process. It is as if they learn the process. They do not know how to make the vaccine and are not as efficient as others. ″
There are two basic steps in vaccine production. The first is a biological process that involves the cultivation of cells, which are injected with a virus, Soriot said. The second is to transform this “drug substance” into the final product, filling bottles and testing each batch of vaccine.
Soriot said AstraZeneca had to reduce deliveries to the EU because factories in Europe had lower than expected yields from the biological process used to produce the vaccine. This also happened in other regions, as AstraZeneca sought to rapidly expand production capacity to meet the demands of countries struggling with the pandemic.
“We also had initial problems like that in the UK supply chain,” said Soriot. “But the contract with the United Kingdom was signed three months before the European vaccine agreement, so with the United Kingdom, we had three more months to fix all the problems we were experiencing. As for Europe, we are three months late in correcting these flaws. “
A European Commission official, the EU executive, said the bloc had agreed to give AstraZeneca 336 million euros ($ 407 million) to develop its vaccine and deliver the doses. The official, who was not allowed to speak publicly, said the commission would have the right to recover part of the money if the company fails to comply with the terms of this advance purchase agreement.
If the company’s factories in the UK are operating more efficiently than those on the continent, the EU expects to receive doses made in Britain as stipulated in the contract, the official said.
“We reject the logic of first come, first served,” said Kyriakides. “This may work in the neighborhood butchers, but not in contracts and not in our advance purchase agreements. There is no priority clause in the advance purchase agreement. “
The reduction in planned deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine is occurring at the same time as a slowdown in the distribution of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, as Pfizer updates production facilities at a factory in Belgium.
“There are a lot of emotions in this process now, and I can understand: people want a vaccine. I also want the vaccine, I want it today, ″ said Soriot. “But, at the end of the day, it’s a complicated process. ″
In the north of Wales, a factory that makes the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had to be partially evacuated Wednesday after receiving a “suspicious package”.
Wockhardt UK, an arm of the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company that is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine, said it notified the authorities after receiving the package at its factory 42 miles (68 km) south of Liverpool.
Police blocked the roads around the plant and the BBC reported that a bomb disposal unit was called.
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Danica Kirka reported from London. Sylvia Hui contributed to this London report.
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