After the summer romance, the atmosphere is now tense between the European Commission and AstraZeneca (see EUROPE 12547/7). Proof of this is that the third meeting convened, on the evening of Wednesday 27 January, to find a solution to the delivery delays announced by the pharmaceutical company for its candidate vaccine was almost cancelled.
In the meantime, there was a media ping pong match. An interview with AstraZeneca’s CEO Pascal Soriot, published in several European media on 26 January, set the wheels in motion. Mr Soriot mentioned the problems encountered by his company in producing the medical substance for the candidate vaccine, saying there was “a two month delay”. In the wake of this, he said that the UK production sites could not be used immediately to supply the European market and that the quantities agreed with the EU were mentioned as ideal targets and not firm commitments.
Such an interpretation differs from that of the European Commission, which, in this communication war, required the pharmaceutical company to authorise publication of the contract.
“The 27 European Union Member States are united that AstraZeneca needs to deliver on its commitments in our agreement”, said the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides (see EUROPE 12644/2), a few hours before the steering committee meeting with the company. The Commission wants more information from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory on the precise reasons for the delay and the means implemented to remedy it.
“We know that we will receive a small quantity in February [Editor’s note: Pascal Soriot speaks of a target of 17 million doses in February] and March, but we are left in the dark”, a European source pointed out. According to its calculations, the EU will receive a quarter of what it should have received in the first quarter of 2021. “This is unacceptable!”, added this source, saying the number should be at least three digits.
The EU’s agreement with AstraZeneca in August 2020 covers the supply of 300 million doses of the future vaccine, with an option for a further 100 million doses (see EUROPE 12547/7). The European Medicines Agency could approve the company’s vaccine on Friday 29 January.
Problems in detail
In the interview, Pascal Soriot expressed the impossibility for his company to use British firms to honour its European commitments. “The London government stipulated that procurement from the UK supply chain would go to the UK first. In the agreement with the EU, it is mentioned that British manufacturing sites were an option for Europe, but only later”, he said.
“Wrong!”, replied a European official, for whom the contract signed with AstraZeneca refers to four production sites (two in the UK, one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands). According to the same source, the contract does not provide for any hierarchy between the four sites and the only backup option is a fifth site outside the European region.
Another small sentence made Europeans jump. According to Mr Soriot, the contract with the EU is not a contractual commitment, but a commitment to make “every best effort”.
Once again, the European Commission rejects this version, insisting that the idea behind the advance contracts was to “finance companies to produce despite the risk” and build up a stockpile even before the vaccine is licenced in the EU.
In addition, the Commission suspects that AstraZeneca has sent doses produced in the Netherlands and Germany to the UK. “No company should be under any illusion that we don’t have the means to understand what is happening. We ask all companies to be transparent”, Ms Kyriakides warned.
According to our information, these suspicions are based in particular on information collected by the customs services.
MEPs call for a new meeting
Faced with this chaos, the European Parliament’s relevant committee has invited representatives of pharmaceutical companies and the Commission to a “fact-based debate on the best way to deliver vaccines in the EU”, said its Chair, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France), via Twitter. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)