Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Monday that he plans to work with Israel and Denmark in the future production of vaccines and cooperation around the development of new vaccines to combat new mutations in the coronavirus. He will visit Israel with Danish leader Mette Frederiksen on Thursday.
The Austrian leader strongly criticized the EU’s vaccine strategy and the bloc’s regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The EU authorized the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in late December 2020, weeks after it was approved in the UK and the U.S.
Brussels opted for a centralized approach to vaccine procurement and distribution, but its plan was hampered by supply and distribution problems. Only 5.5% of the EU’s 447 million population received the first dose of the vaccine, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The EMA has authorized three vaccines – Pfizer / BioNTech, Oxford / AstraZeneca and Moderna – but EU countries can individually grant emergency clearance for other vaccines, as the UK did in December, when it was still in the post-Brexit transition period.
“The European Medicines Agency is very slow in terms of authorization from pharmaceutical companies,” said Kurz, according to the ORF. “That is why we have to prepare for new mutations and we should no longer depend on the EU when it comes to the production of second generation vaccines.”
Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, made similar comments on Monday. “The European vaccination effort can no longer be alone,” she said, adding that this is why Denmark and Austria are cooperating to get more doses.
Other EU countries have turned to Russia and China to fill the gaps in the supply of vaccines through unilateral acquisitions. On Monday, Slovakia granted emergency authorization for the Moscow Sputnik V vaccine after a delay in the supply of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The EMA has not yet given the green light to the Sputnik V vaccine. ” [Slovakia] the approval is based on the results of Sputnik V clinical trials in Russia and a comprehensive evaluation of the vaccine by experts in Slovakia, “said the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which supported the production of Sputnik V, on Monday.
“We have received numerous requests from EU states to supply Sputnik V directly to them based on analysis by their national agencies,” said Kirill Dmitriev, RDIF’s CEO, in a statement. “We will continue to do this and also work with the EMA based on the continuous review procedure that we started in January.”
Slovakia is the second EU country to independently grant authorization for Sputnik V, after Hungary, which started launching the vaccine in February. Hungary is also the first EU country to launch China’s Sinopharm vaccine, which has not been approved by the EMA.
“Vaccination is not a political issue, it is a question of effectiveness and reliability,” Hungary’s Secretary of State for Communication and International Relations, Zoltan Kovacs, told CNN on Monday. “We see that both Chinese and Russian vaccines are being used around the world in many places.”
Hungary also ordered doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines through the EU, but Kovacs said the bloc’s centralized strategy did not meet expectations. “Well, it is obvious and visible now that this strategy, compared to the United Kingdom, Israel and even the United States, has failed,” he said.
“The Brussels bureaucracy has not been able to reach quick and immediate resolutions on contracts, we are at least two months behind schedule.”
Hungary has long been an exception in Europe, with its leaders regularly clashing with EU heads over human rights policy. But Hungary is far from being the only country frustrated by the way the bloc is handling the launch of the vaccine.
Czech President Miloš Zeman told CNN’s Prima News affiliate on Sunday that his country could launch Sputnik V if authorized by the domestic regulator. “I wrote to President Putin requesting the delivery of Sputnik-V. If I am properly informed, this request will be granted, but of course we will need the [medical regulator] certification, “he said.
“If several people warn us against a Russian or Chinese vaccine, it is good to tell them that the vaccine has no ideology,” he added.
The fragmentation of the EU’s centralized strategy occurs amid developments within the bloc on the AstraZeneca vaccine. France said earlier that it should only be given to people under 65, citing the lack of clinical data on its effectiveness for older people.
But Paris has now extended the age limit to 75. According to Reuters, there are now fears that the government’s initial critical comments have led to a reduction in acceptance of the shot in the country.
At a press conference in Downing Street on Monday, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, said the data “clearly justified” the UK’s decision to vaccinate all age groups since the start of the screening process. implantation. “I am not here to criticize other countries, but I say that I think that over time, the data that emerges from our program will speak for itself and other countries will undoubtedly be very interested in them,” he added.
EU leaders are now focused on getting the bloc’s vaccination campaign back on track. “Our top priority now is to accelerate the production and distribution of vaccines and vaccines across the European Union,” said European Council President Charles Michel last week.
“This is why we support the Commission’s efforts to work with industry to identify bottlenecks in securing supply chains and increase production. And we want more predictability and transparency to ensure that pharmaceutical companies keep their commitments, ”he added.
The bloc now faces a race to fix the launch of the vaccine, while maintaining the faith of restless member states looking for other solutions.
CNN’s Lindsay Isaac, Antonia Mortensen, Ivana Kottasova, Chloe Adams, Andrew Carey and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this story.