- The AstraZeneca vaccine has been developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford and is in the final steps of the approval process of the European Medicines Agency. However, it is one of the vaccines that are already being administered in the UK. Of the 80 million doses agreed with the European Union, only 31 million doses will arrive in the first quarter of the year. Brussels has suggested that the company AstraZeneca has sold to other countries the doses it had for the European Union.
The company AstraZeneca announced on 22 January that it will not send to the European Union more than 40% of the COVID-19 vaccines that are being prepared, according to the media Medical Writing. Although the agreed vaccines were around EUR 80 million, Europe will receive only EUR 31 million in the first quarter of 2021. AstraZeneca has reported that the cut has been due to production problems, which have led to delays.
European Union Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has posted on Twitter that "we have been disappointed by discussions with the company AstraZeneca and EU Member States agree: We believe that people who make vaccines have the social responsibilities they have to fulfil."
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— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) 25 January 2021
Faced with the announcement of the company, the European Commission and the Member States have been "outraged" by the decision. "We reiterate the need to develop a specific delivery schedule, taking into account that Member States must replan vaccination programmes and that they should give a provisional marketing permit," Kyriakides said in his Twitter account. As a result, "we will continue to demand that AstraZeneca take measures to increase the production of doses and accelerate the distribution of doses".
Dose Distribution
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the director of AstraZeneca, Paschal Soriot, for explanations. Von den Leyen stressed that the contract signed must be complied with and that the prescribed doses must therefore be sent firmly to the Union Europea.La The European Union has suggested that the company has sold to third countries the vaccines promised to the European Union.
The Italian Government has already announced that it will bring to court the company AstraZeneca, accused of breach of business contract, as it has done with Pfizer and BioNTech, who have also had problems in distributing the doses committed.