Photographer: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks on the crisis with pharmaceutical executives, German regional leaders and European Commission officials on Monday in an attempt to speed up the stuttering vaccination effort on the continent.
This afternoon’s video call in Berlin comes after Ursula von der Leyen, the committee chair, announced that AstraZeneca Plc will deliver 9 million additional doses of vaccines to the European Union in the first quarter. The EU has been fighting a heated dispute with the pharmaceutical company since AstraZeneca said it was reducing the number of vaccines delivered to the bloc due to production problems.
Von der Leyen said on Sunday night on Twitter that the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company would start deliveries a week ahead of schedule and expand manufacturing. The extra doses would bring the total to 40 million, just about half of what the EU expected from Astra by March.
Separately, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said on Monday that it will, as previously indicated, produce an additional 75 million doses of its vaccine for the EU in the second quarter. The two companies are “back to the original schedule for dispensing vaccine doses” to the EU after modifications to a facility in Puurs, Belgium, BioNTech said.
“We are now in negotiations with other qualified partners on new potential deals” to further increase the capacity of our European manufacturing network, said BioNTech’s chief financial officer, Sierk Poetting, in an emailed statement.
The EU is lagging behind in the vaccine race
Cumulative doses administered by 100 people
Source: Data collected by Bloomberg
Read more: In the face of a vaccine emergency, the EU has become the enemy of all
AstraZeneca unleashed a crisis on January 22, when it said that problems at a factory in Belgium would mean that deliveries to the EU this quarter would be significantly reduced. As a result, the bloc, which was criticized for the slow implementation of national vaccination programs, said it would begin to restrict vaccine exports if pharmacists do not meet delivery targets.
The episode turned into a hard-hitting blame game that pitted the 27-nation EU against the burden of the pharmaceutical industry and raised fears that a wave of vaccine nationalism could hinder efforts to fight the pandemic. The bleak vaccination program of the bloc and its effort to rectify the first errors have generated criticism from many sides, including companies like AstraZeneca, that it needs to combat the Covid crisis.
Export restrictions can disrupt vaccine supply chains, while billions are waiting to be inoculated before the spread of mutations makes the virus less vulnerable to available vaccines.
“We want 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated by the end of the summer,” von der Leyen said in an interview on Sunday with German broadcaster ZDF. She added that supplies are expected to increase significantly in the second quarter, when Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical companies overcome initial hurdles. An Astra spokesman declined to comment on additional deliveries.
Astra’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, said last week that the company was trying to get more supplies from around the world to increase deliveries to the EU, adding that “we are working 24/7 to increase this capacity”.
So far, the 27 EU governments have administered only 2.8 doses of vaccine per 100 people, far behind the 14.2 doses in the UK and 9.7 in the USA. The delays could undermine Europe’s plans to break out of recession-inducing blocks, amid an increasing reaction against governments over extended stay requests.
The EU drug regulator released the Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford on Friday. It will be the third vaccine available in the EU after Pfizer-BioNTech injections and Moderna Inc., potentially decreasing vaccine shortages, as the EU lags behind the UK and the US in vaccinations.
In the ZDF interview, Von der Leyen said he spoke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said that both Astra factories would deliver in Europe. “Our enemy is the virus and the pharmaceutical industry is part of the solution,” she said.
Better prepared
Von der Leyen on Sunday held a video call with chief executives of pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Moderna, to discuss how vaccines could be distributed, manufactured and approved more quickly in the future.
“The pandemic highlighted that manufacturing capabilities are a limiting factor. It is essential to face these challenges, ”the commission said in a statement after the conference call. He added that “the emergence of worrying variants increases the imminent threat of reduced efficacy from recently approved vaccines.”
Sunday’s discussion focused on the EU’s long-term health strategy and preparation. Inspired by the first stumbling blocks in curbing the spread of coronavirus last year, the push for a common approach aims to protect against a patchwork of national responses to any future health scares.
Also included in the meeting were executives from BioNTech, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, CureVac NV and Sanofi, according to the statement.
– With the help of Raymond Colitt, Frank Connelly and Nikos Chrysoloras