The European Commission proposed on Tuesday 16 March that the delivery of 10 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech be accelerated. It suggests taking this amount from the option of 100 million doses to be delivered in the third and fourth quarters and bringing it forward to the second quarter of the year.
This advance, which still needs to be approved by Member States, would bring the total number of doses supplied by Pfizer-BioNTech in the second quarter to over 200 million. “This is very good news. This will give Member States room for manoeuvre and possibly close delivery gaps”, welcomed the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Union is suffering from the setbacks of the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca, which, on the one hand, is not respecting its delivery commitments and, on the other, is currently facing suspicions of side effects that have led a dozen Member States to temporarily suspend the inoculation of the vaccine produced by the laboratory (see EUROPE 12678/6). Germany and Norway, in particular, have reported several deaths (3 in Germany and at least 2 in Norway) caused by cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).
EMA opinion expected Thursday 18 March
A more permanent solution will most certainly depend on the opinion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is due to adopt conclusions on Thursday 18 March.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the agency’s executive director reaffirmed her support for AstraZeneca’s vaccine. “Although further evaluation is underway, we currently remain firmly convinced that the benefits of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in preventing Covid-19 and the risk of hospitalisation from this virus outweigh the risk of side effects”, said Emer Cooke, reiterating the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee’s (PRAC) opinion of 10 March.
“There is currently no evidence that vaccination has caused these cases. They have not occurred in clinical trials and are not listed as known adverse events with this vaccine in clinical trials”, she continued, adding that the PRAC was conducting a detailed analysis of the available data.
While she ruled out the occurrence of side effects linked to one batch of vaccines, Ms Cooke did not completely rule out that these effects could occur in a specific subgroup of the population. But she called for patience and refused to anticipate EMA action once the PRAC findings are available.
For its part, France has fired a shot across the bows of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, with the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, regretting the “gutting of the contract” and stressing that the EU was not ruling out legal action. For her part, the Minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, declared that the boss of AstraZeneca “is in the hot seat, and he is perfectly well aware”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)