EU ramps up fight for Covid vaccines with move to force AstraZeneca to ship jabs out from UK

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Dramatically ramping up the vaccines row,  European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen claimed that the EU’s contract with the firm was “crystal clear” and demanded its publication.
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European Union chiefs moved today to force pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to ship  Covid-19 vaccines from Britain to the Continent to make up for a shortfall in doses.

Dramatically ramping up the vaccines row,  European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen claimed that the EU’s contract with the firm was “crystal clear” and early this morning demanded its publication.

Within hours, the Commission said the company had agreed to make public the contract, with some redactions.

EU leaders are facing a backlash in their countries after coronavirus jabs were running out at centres including in Paris, Madrid and Lisbon  after delays by Brussels in bulk-buying supplies and production problems.

The EU made an advance purchase agreement in August for the supply of at least 300 million AstraZeneca doses. However, the UK had already raced ahead by ordering 100 million in May and investing from even earlier in the year to boost production facilities.

Speaking on German radio, Ms von der Leyen insisted that the EU contract did not stipulate “order sequencing” and that it mentioned four production sites, two of which are in Britain.

Doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs for the UK are understood to be made at sites in Oxford and Staffordshire, before being put into vials at a facility in Wrexham.  

Production problems at plants in the Netherlands and Belgium mean the EU is set to receive around 31 million doses in the first quarter of the year, or 60 per cent less than initially agreed, according to a Brussels official.  Ms von der Leyen’s highlighting of the UK sites was being seen as a sign that the EU believes the company should use them to make up some of the shortfall. 

Piling pressure on AstraZeneca, Ms von der Leyen told Deutschlandfunk: “There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear,” claiming it contained clear delivery amounts for December and the first three quarters of 2021.

“AstraZeneca has also explicitly assured us in this contract that no other obligations would prevent the contract from being fulfilled.”

Her comments contradicted statements by AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot, who told newspapers on Tuesday that the EU contract was based on a “best-effort” clause and did not commit the company to a specific timetable for deliveries.

He said the EU was late to strike a supply contract so the company did not have enough time to iron out production problems at a vaccine factory run by a partner in Belgium. But Ms von der Leyen said the “best-effort” clause was only valid as long as it was not clear whether AstraZeneca could develop a vaccine.

By mid-morning, the two parties appeared to have reached agreement on publishing a contract document.

Eric Mamer, chief spokesmen of the European Commission, told a Brussels briefing: “AstraZeneca has agreed to publish the redacted contract signed between the two parties on August 27 2020.

“We welcome the company’s commitment towards more transparency in its participation to the rollout of the EU vaccine strategy.

“Transparency, and accountability, are important to help build trust of European citizens and to make sure they can rely on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines purchased at EU level.”

In a clear sign of moves to get jabs that have been made in the UK, Veronique Trillet-Lenoir, a French MEP and member of the European Parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee, told Times Radio: “There is nothing in the (EU) contract, as far as I understand, saying that the vaccine produced in Belgium should go to Belgium or the EU, and the vaccine produced in the UK should go to the UK.”

In London, the Government was seeking to keep its distance from the row, which has left Brussels looking slow and ineffective compared with the UK so soon after Brexit.

Junior minister Lucy Frazer said the dispute was a “commercial matter” between the two parties. She added: “We are confident that the supplies that we have put in place with AstraZeneca, which will help us to reach our target of vaccinating everybody by the autumn...that we will get the supplies for that.”

Pressed on Ms von der Leyen saying the EU contract mentions two UK sites, Ms Frazer added: “We have done a great deal of work in the UK to help support the supply chain and the manufacturing base to ensure that we have sufficient supplies within this country.

“But, as I said, our priority is to ensure we vaccinate people in the UK, but of course, where we can help our friends and neighbours, we would do that.”

The European Medicines Agency was expected to give at least partial approval for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine today, a month after it was granted in the UK. Britain is a world leader in Covid-19 vaccinations, with Israel and a few other countries, and appeared to be racing even further ahead:

A fourth Covid-19 vaccine could be approved for use in the UK within weeks as late-stage trials suggested it was 89 per cent effective. The UK has secured 60 million doses of the Novavax jab — to be produced on Teesside — which is believed to offer protection against the new UK and South African variants. Stan Erck, chief executive of Novavax, told the BBC the manufacturing plant in Stockton-on-Tees should be up and running by March or April, with the company hoping to get approval for the vaccine from the regulator around the same time.

Nearly 7.5 million people have had the first dose of a Covid vaccine in the UK, according to latest figures on Thursday, far more than any other European country.

Former chairwoman of the Vaccine Taskforce Kate Bingham told how Britain had acted swiftly to co-operate with the pharmaceutical industry which had invested in scaling up manufacturing facilities from February. “That is what has ultimately made the difference as to why we are so far ahead on manufacturing,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

French firm Valneva on Thursday announced the start of large-scale commercial production of its Covid jab at a plant in Livingston, Scotland.

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