BRUSSELS (Reuters) – AstraZeneca is not doing enough to try to resolve a dispute over delayed deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union, the bloc’s top health official said on Monday when news broke that the pharmaceutical company also faces supply problems elsewhere.
In a sign of EU frustration – after Pfizer also announced a temporary reduction in vaccine supplies in early January – EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides proposed to force drug manufacturers to register their COVID vaccine exports in advance – 19, so that the bloc can follow what they are doing they are doing.
AstraZeneca, which developed its initiative with the University of Oxford, told the EU on Friday that it could not meet the agreed supply targets by the end of March.
An EU official involved in the negotiations told Reuters that this meant a 60% cut to 31 million doses, a blow to the bloc that was already facing criticism for delaying the United States and Britain in its vaccination campaign.
After Friday’s unexpected announcement, the EU asked AstraZeneca to find flexible ways to administer the doses and asked it to publicize the production and distribution of vaccines.
“The company’s responses have not been satisfactory so far,” said Kyriakides after a meeting with the company, adding that a new meeting would be held later in the day.
On Monday morning, EU chief executive Ursula von der Leyen received a call with AstraZeneca chief Pascal Soriot to remind him of the company’s commitments.
An AstraZeneca spokesman said Soriot told von der Leyen that the company was doing everything possible to get its vaccine to millions of Europeans as soon as possible.
However, news also surfaced on Monday that the company is facing greater supply problems.
Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters that AstraZeneca informed the country that it had experienced “a significant supply shock” that it would cut supplies in March below agreed. He did not provide numbers.
Thailand’s Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said AstraZeneca would deliver 150,000 doses instead of the planned 200,000, and far less than the 1 million injections the country had initially requested.
AstraZeneca declined to comment on global supply issues.
‘FLIMSY JUSTIFICATION’
Another EU official told Reuters that AstraZeneca received an initial payment of 336 million euros ($ 409 million) when the EU struck a deal with the company in August for at least 300 million doses and an option for another 100 million – the first signed by the bloc to protect COVID-19 shots.
That was after the United States guaranteed 300 million doses in May for up to $ 1.2 billion, and Britain, in May, guaranteed 100 million doses for 84 million pounds ($ 115 million).
Under pre-purchase agreements sealed during the pandemic, the EU makes advances to companies to guarantee doses, with the money being used mainly to expand production capacity.
“Initial volumes will be less than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain,” said AstraZeneca on Friday.
The site is a viral vector factory in Belgium run by the partner of the pharmaceutical company Novasep.
Viral vectors are produced in genetically modified living cells that need to be fed into bioreactors. The complex procedure requires fine tuning of various inputs and variables to achieve consistently high yields.
“The flimsy justification that there are difficulties in the EU supply chain, but not elsewhere, does not hold, as it is clear that it is okay to take the vaccine from the UK to the continent,” said the EU legislator. Peter Liese, who is from the same party as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
EU contracts with vaccine manufacturers are confidential, but an EU official involved in the negotiations has not ruled out penalties for AstraZeneca, given the major overhaul of its commitments. However, the source did not elaborate on what could trigger the penalties. “We are not there yet,” added the official.
“AstraZeneca has been contractually obliged to produce since October and they are apparently delivering to other parts of the world, including the UK without delay,” said Liese.
The AstraZeneca vaccine must be approved for use in the EU on 29 January, with first deliveries scheduled for 15 February.
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Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio and Sabine Siebold; additional reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok, Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Pravin Char, Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter