One more chapter in the history of disagreements with AstraZeneca. The pharmaceutical company has hidden around 30 million vaccines in a warehouse in Italy . The plant, located near Rome, accumulated all the doses, discovered during an investigation by the European Commission.
In fact, part of them would have been produced by the Halix company in the Netherlands. They could be destined for the United Kingdom, although the Italian Government later announced that they were going to Belgium. The British Executive also denied that they had anything to do with it. In any case, Commissioner Thierry Breton has confirmed to Cadena SER that the doses will remain in the EU.
According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, these doses are almost double those that AstraZeneca has delivered so far to the European Union and the United Kingdom’s calculations went through receiving them to ensure the second puncture to some 15 million people . The British Government has accelerated vaccination because it prioritizes the first dose.
The Dutch plant, for its part, does not have the approval of the EMA to produce the vaccines in the European Union . But it does have authorization from London for use in the UK. Of course, that authorization from the European Medicines Agency was expected to take place soon, and the European Commission suspected that AstraZeneca did not provide enough information about the factory precisely to favor deliveries to the British.
AstraZeneca, for its part, assured that the doses found “are not a reserve” and supports its maneuver in a “quality control” that vaccines have to pass before being delivered. Half of the total are to deliver to the EU, they add. Furthermore, it says the doses were not manufactured in the Union. The pharmaceutical company said in a statement that it maintains its “commitment” to deliver with the European Union.
“It is an investigation that is ongoing and we will see how far it goes, we cannot give more details because, in addition, the matter is complex, ” Commission sources are limited to 20 minutes . The reality is that AstraZeneca has become a Chinese in the EU’s shoe, because to the cuts in deliveries we must add that the pharmaceutical company is complying with the United Kingdom which, as it was demonstrated, signed the contract later than Brussels.
So much so that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, insists on vetoing exports to the United Kingdom as long as AstraZeneca does not comply with the Union. That proposal will be put on the table at the European Council summit on Thursday.
At the moment, only one AstraZeneca shipment from Italy to Australia has been blocked, with 250,000 doses, relying precisely on the export control mechanism established by the EU.
More and more voices are calling for a strong hand with AstraZeneca in the face of their breaches and their behaviors. The claim process, in any case, would be long. Going to the CJEU would delay the solution by even one year and the possibility of arbitration, although faster, would be two or three months.
That, in addition, does not ensure that AstraZeneca will comply with the agreed doses. Of course, the Commission has already said that it has “all possibilities” open, including the judicial process.
Faced with events such as these, the Commission has strengthened the control of these exports and has introduced the components of “reciprocity” and “proportionality”. How do they work? Although they do not say so directly, they are ‘anti United Kingdom’ clauses because national and community experts will analyze before authorizing an export if the country of destination is putting obstacles to the output of vaccines or any of their components , either with “measures legal or other means “.
Similarly, proportionality refers to whether the host country is in a better or worse epidemiological situation than the EU and whether or not it has access to enough vaccines.
The representatives of the Commission clarify that what is being presented this Wednesday “is not an export ban . ” Asked about which countries their new criteria will affect the most, they answer that “none in particular” but recall that while the United Kingdom has received 10 million doses of vaccines from the EU, while the EU has not received any from the UK. Dombrovskis reiterates that it is a question of “reciprocity, solidarity and global responsibility”.
“The EU remains committed to international solidarity and will therefore continue to exclude from this regime supplies of vaccines for humanitarian aid or destined for the 92 low- and middle-income countries listed on the COVAX Advance Market Commitments list. “They also clarified from the Community Executive.
Since the inception of this mechanism, 380 export requests have been granted to 33 different destinations for a total of about 43 million doses. Only one export application was not accepted, the one already mentioned to Australia. The main export destinations are precisely the United Kingdom (with about 10.9 million doses), Canada (6.6 million), Japan (5.4 million), Mexico (4.4 million), Saudi Arabia (1, 5 million), Singapore (1.5 million), Chile (1.5 million), Hong Kong (1.3 million), Korea (1 million) and Australia (1 million).
The never ending conflict
Since the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved last January, which was the third to receive the go-ahead from the EMA after Pfizer and Moderna, the conflicts have not stopped growing to the point that the contracts have ended up being published.
Although with many hidden parts “for confidentiality”. In any case, the document gave the reason to the EU that the UK plants supply the vaccines to the Union and, later, it was confirmed that the contract with the Commission had been signed before that with the Johnson Government.
At the time, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company, Pascal Riot, explained in an interview with the Italian media Reppublica that the contract with the EU speaks of “efforts” to comply with the supply, but not of “obligation”. They also ensure that no “specific doses” are cited, despite the fact that the European Union states that four hundred are signed.
The conclusion is that between April and June AstraZeneca will distribute 90 million doses in the European Union, half of the 180 million that it has signed with the Commission. This is in addition to the delay in the first quarter of this year: first it held that 31 million doses, which finally rose to 40 million, half of the 80 million agreed.
Meanwhile, the month of March was marked by the stoppage of vaccination with AstraZeneca , due to the appearance of some blood clots in citizens who had received the vial. The EMA described the vaccine as “safe and effective”, but until its final message more than half of the Member States stopped the inoculation “as a precaution”. Now they are taking it up again, but at a different pace.
