[News] European Union pressures pharmaceutical companies for delays in delivery of vaccines against COVID-19

[#Steeven.™]

The European Union (EU) is trying to pressure pharmaceutical companies to deliver the doses of coronavirus vaccines that they had pledged to provide during the first quarter of the year, following announcements of delays by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, assured this Sunday that the laboratories will maintain the initial schedule of vaccine deliveries in the European Union from January 25, after Brussels intervened so that the contracts were respected.

"We are going to enforce the contracts that have been validated by the pharmaceutical companies and we are committed to transparency using all the legal means at our disposal," Michel said on the French radio station Europe 1.

The President of the European Council insisted that from Brussels they have had to "fight and strike a blow on the table" to ask for clarity on the reasons why delays have been announced and have also asked companies to speak transparently about the reasons for which they have sometimes had difficulties in the production chain.

"When delays have been announced, for example in the case of Pfizer, we have acted firmly, hit the table and finally the delays of several weeks have been reduced to slowdowns in delivery," he added.

This same Sunday, the Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, announced that his country will take legal action against the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca for reducing the batch of coronavirus vaccines, as it has already done with Pfizer and BioNtech for the same reasons.

"We will use all instruments and all legal initiatives, as we are already doing with Pfizer-BioNtech, to claim respect for contractual commitments and protect our national community," Conte said on his social networks.

In any case, the majority of Member States have limited themselves to expressing their discontent or discomfort and urging companies to speed up the delivery of injections and comply with the agreement.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo this week refused to take action against Pfizer in court, calling litigation "not the solution."

The Belgian Minister of Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, went on to specify that Italy has decided to go to court because it does not have enough injection reserves to apply the second dose.

"That will not be our situation," he confirmed.

On January 15, Pfizer confirmed a change in its production capacity for the coronavirus vaccine that would reduce the number of them that would be distributed in Europe in the coming weeks.

The company explained in a statement that "it is working hard to deliver more doses than initially planned for this year" and that it must modify the production process to increase its capacity, which "requires additional regulatory approvals."

"Although this will temporarily impact shipments in late January and early February, it will provide a significant increase in the doses available to patients in late February and March," the drugmaker said.

On Thursday, the European Commission said it expects the pharmaceutical consortium Pfizer-BioNTech to fully regain its production rate "next week."

"Starting next week, deliveries continue according to plan," European Commission Health spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker told a news conference.

The spokesman reported that last week the European Commission, responsible for the joint vaccine purchase program for the EU, was informed by the pharmaceutical company that "there would be delays in deliveries."

The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, contacted "immediately with the CEO of the company and guarantees were offered that deliveries in the first quarter of the year would be respected and that production would increase in the following months".

The pharmaceutical company has reported that "there will be delays for a week: this week we are in now", but next week deliveries are expected to regain the usual pace and, despite the problems, Pfizer has committed to Brussels to deliver by March the originally signed doses.

On the other hand, AstraZeneca informed the European Commission on Friday that, after the approval of its coronavirus vaccine by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is expected at the end of the month, it will not be able to initially deliver the amount expected dose.

Given this scenario, the community club will speak with the British pharmacist next week.

As announced on Saturday by the Dutch Ministry of Health, the EU is "still in dialogue" with the company, which announced that it will reduce by 60% the total batch of vaccines it will deliver to Brussels in the first quarter of 2021, citing production problems.

On the other hand, the President of the European Council also indicated in his interview today with Europe 1 that he has asked the European Medicines Agency to pronounce clearly and with scientific arguments on the number of doses available per bottle, which according to the laboratory Pfizer is limited to five, although the health authorities consider that there are six, which has balanced the delay.

"It is necessary that throughout Europe we have the same interpretation," urged Michel.