Still no solution in sight between the European Union and the AstraZeneca laboratory concerning the delays in the delivery of vaccines against Covid-19 (see EUROPE 12643/2). The two parties therefore agreed, after two virtual meetings at the beginning of the week, to resume their discussions on the evening of Wednesday 27 January.
“As in any complex process, giving yourself a little time helps the process. We have asked AstraZeneca a number of questions and hope for answers at our next meeting”, explained Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.
The institution does not appreciate that AstraZeneca, which continues to supply other non-Member States, is not honouring its European commitments. According to Reuters, the British-Swedish group has proposed, as a solution, to bring forward its first deliveries by one week (on 7 January, instead of 15 January) and to deliver more doses in February, on condition that it receive a favourable opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) at the end of the week for a conditional marketing authorisation. However, it claimed not to able to commit to March deliveries, which makes little sense, as the quantities were negotiated by the Commission on a quarterly basis.
Exports: a weekend proposal
For the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, there is no question of relaxing the pressure. Vaccine manufacturers “must now keep their promises and honour their obligations”, she reiterated on Tuesday in a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The spokesperson’s service also returned to an announcement made the day before by Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides concerning export controls (see EUROPE 12643/2). He said it was not an “export ban”, but a “monitoring, a better idea of the export intentions of products whose production was largely financed by EU investments”. The follow-up, launched following rumours that doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine produced in the Netherlands and Germany had been sent to the UK, will be proposed “by the end of the week”, he added.
EMA interviewed by MEPs
Asked to provide an update to MEPs on the public health committee, the executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Emer Cooke, did not dwell on delivery delays.
She recalled that this issue was not within her remit. “The only thing we can do is to work with companies and Member States to make sure new manufacturing sites are available”, Ms Cooke said, pledging to provide MEPs with details of authorised production sites in the EU.
However, she spoke out against rumours that AstraZeneca’s vaccine is only 8% effective in people over 65. According to her, the reason for this is that the studies carried out so far concern small numbers of older people. “We have to look at the data, science behind”, she said as the EMA is expected to decide Friday on a possible conditional marketing authorisation for AstraZeneca’s vaccine. “The committee can decide to approve it depending on what they see, the strengths of scientific data. They could decide, and I don’t prejudge [which requires scientific and expert analysis], to conclude an authorisation that would focus on a particular age group or a wider age group”.
More broadly, Ms Cooke said her agency was in contact with 15 vaccine manufacturers, including Sputnik V, and 180 treatment manufacturers, “some of which will probably be subject to European authorisation later this year”.
She did not give a timetable for the authorisation of the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to be the next after AstraZeneca’s, on which the EMA is expected to take a decision. However, Ms Cooke was relatively confident, indicating that vaccines for other diseases had already been used at EU level, though based on the same technology. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)