EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides expressed dissatisfaction on Monday with the negotiations with AstraZeneca and said the talks would continue. She said the drugmaker “intends to deliver considerably less doses in the coming weeks than agreed and announced.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen increased pressure on pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday, saying the bloc “means business”.
“Europe has invested billions to help develop the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines, to create a truly global common good. And now companies must comply. They must honor their obligations,” she said during a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum. .
EU countries that rely on vaccines to control the health crisis and boost their economies are now being forced to modify their plans. Italian Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri told TV channel Rai 1 on Sunday that people over 80 would be vaccinated four weeks later than planned as a result of the delays. The country is threatening legal action against pharmaceutical companies.
“Fur [fall] we could vaccinate up to 45 million Italians, but I don’t believe in these companies, “said Sileri.” I want to see the vaccines. “
Unexpected delays
The European Union has ordered 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be approved for use later this week, with an option to purchase an additional 100 million.
The company said production was hampered by a manufacturing problem.
“While there is no scheduled delay for shipment of our vaccine to begin if we receive approval in Europe, the initial volumes will be less than initially anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain,” he said. AstraZeneca in a statement. “We will be supplying tens of millions of doses in February and March to the European Union, as we continue to increase production volumes.”
The news left the block reeling, as well as rushing to assess the impact of the delays announced by Pfizer. The American company said on January 15 that it would deliver fewer doses than planned last week, while upgrading its plant in Puurs, Belgium.
The drugmaker said it would still be able to meet its first quarter goals and, as a result of changes to its factory in Belgium, it would be able to produce 2 billion doses by the end of 2021. This is above the 1.3 billion originally estimated .
Pfizer said on Monday it would return to the original delivery schedule for the European Union this week.
European governments are demanding responses, pointing out that the success of their vaccination efforts depends on the private sector.
“On the one hand, we can only salute the result of science, and on the other hand, they have a monopoly and we are totally dependent,” Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said on Saturday. “There may be production problems, but these uncertainties and announcements make it very difficult to organize the campaign.”
Kyriakides said on Monday that the bloc will now demand “full transparency regarding vaccine exports” from the European Union.
“In the future, all companies that produce Covid-19 vaccines in the EU will have to provide advance notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries. Humanitarian deliveries are not affected by this,” she said on Twitter.
It is very bad?
Supply chain experts are much more concerned with the news from AstraZeneca than from Pfizer, given the last company’s commitment to increase production soon. The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, is also much easier to distribute because it can be stored at higher temperatures than the Pfizer alternative.
A delay of one or two weeks “is not a big problem,” said Burak Kazaz, professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University. “[Though] I certainly understand that a delay means lives. ”
The scope of the problems that AstraZeneca faces, which seem more serious, will become clear in the coming weeks, he said.
Delays by both companies are a sign that there are still supply chain problems that need to be resolved as distribution increases, according to Prashant Yadav, a specialist in the medical supply chain and a senior researcher at the Global Development Center.
“We will have more ups and downs until we reach a stable process,” said Yadav.
Given the difficult attempts to increase speed – and the concentration of production in only a few manufacturing sites – the public should expect the monthly manufacturing capacity to fluctuate for now, he added.
Richard Wilding, professor of supply chain strategy at Cranfield University in England, noted that there are at least 50 items needed to manage vaccination sites, from alcohol wipes and syringes to personal protective equipment. Supply chains for these items also need to function smoothly.
Crucially, delays are not just a problem for Europe.
“The price will be paid by developing countries that do not yet have access, because their deliveries may delay further on the line,” said Yadav.
– James Frater, Chris Liakos, Amanda Sealy and Stephanie Halasz contributed to the report.