The EU increases pressure on Astrazeneca with new waves of COVID-19

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders expressed frustration on Thursday with a sharp drop in contracted deliveries of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, with the emergence of a third wave of infections across Europe.

With vaccination programs far short of those in Britain and the United States, the bloc’s executive warned that vaccine exports by the Swedish-British company would be blocked until it delivered the promised vaccines to the EU.

“We need and want to explain to our European citizens that they get their fair share,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at a news conference after a video conference of European Union leaders.

“The company has to catch up, it has to honor the contract it has with European member states, before it can export vaccines again,” he said.

Of the 300 million doses to be delivered to EU countries by the end of June, Astrazeneca plans to deliver just 100 million.

This has contributed to an onset of stuttering vaccination. On March 23, Britain administered nearly 46 vaccines for every 100 people, compared with less than 14 for every 100 in the 27-nation bloc it left last year, according to figures compiled by the website Our World In Data.

This week, the European Commission unveiled plans to step up enforcement of vaccine exports. This would allow more room for maneuver to block remittances to countries with higher inoculation rates.

The EU is divided over whether to take a tougher stance on vaccine exports by companies that are not meeting contractual commitments. French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear that he was completely behind this.

“It is the end of naivety,” he said at a news conference after the summit. “I support the fact that we must block all exports until some pharmaceutical companies do not respect their commitments to Europeans.”

QUARREL WITH GREAT BRITAIN

The problematic launch of the vaccine in Europe led to a dispute with Britain, which imported 21 million doses made in the EU, according to an EU official. Britain says it has done a better job of negotiating with manufacturers and organizing supply chains.

The EU says it should share more, mainly to help make up for AstraZeneca’s lack of contracted gun deliveries.

Brussels and London sought to cool tensions on Wednesday, declaring that they were working “to create a win-win situation and expand the supply of vaccines to all our citizens”.

Highlighting the EU’s difficulties, US biotechnology company Novavax is delaying the signing of a contract to supply its vaccine to the bloc, an EU official told Reuters on Thursday, due to problems in the supply of some raw materials.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he and other leaders hoped that a stricter approach to vaccine exports would not be applied and warned of “broader consequences” if applicable.

Von der Leyen, seeking to counter the accusations that the EU threat to block exports amounted to “vaccine nationalism”, presented slides showing that 77 million doses of vaccines have been shipped from EU factories to more than 40 countries since the beginning from December.

She said the EU will still reach its goal of inoculating 70% of adults by the summer and noted that, although a third wave of infections is underway, the increase in mortality was slower than the spread of the virus due to vaccination of the elderly. .