The dispute between the EU and Great Britain had ignited at the weekend: In an open letter, Council President Charles Michel wrote of a British “export ban” for vaccines. The British government immediately denied that there was no such ban. Prime Minister Boris Johnson again outraged the allegation on Wednesday at Question Time in the House of Commons. The mood, which was already poisoned by problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol from the Brexit Treaty, became even more irritable.
London keeps vaccine to itself
London is proud that 23 million Brits are now vaccinated against Covid, a higher proportion than anywhere else in Europe. However, there seems to have been no shortage of vaccine on the island – and the EU has also contributed to this: It has now announced that, despite the shortages in its own member countries, it has delivered nine million doses from European production to Great Britain.
Britain’s premier with an AstraZeneca ampoule
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Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had declared to the EU that it could only meet its contractual delivery obligations to 40 percent. The AstraZeneca vaccine is also manufactured in the UK, although the EU does not believe that it was exported from there. The group had given priority to deliveries under its British contract. This is how the word “export ban” came about.
Both sides have been fighting over these deliveries since January and, contrary to the British representation, the EU is insisting that the corresponding contracts with the pharmaceutical company contain obligations of equal value and that they were concluded at the same time. So is there a special agreement between the UK-majority pharmaceutical company and the UK government?
EU exports vaccine worldwide
AstraZeneca is refusing to deliver the UK-made vaccine to the continent, says MEP Peter Liese. “If Europe supplies the world while everyone else is only thinking of themselves, then things cannot work out”. The EU Commission in Brussels announced that 34 million doses of vaccine produced in Europe have been delivered to 31 countries since January.
Meanwhile, the vaccination campaigns in many EU countries are running slowly and there are complaints about the lack of supplies. Pharmaceutical expert Liese is now in favor of the possibility of a total export ban by the EU, which is possible under WTO rules: “BioNTech / Pfizer, whose vaccine is exported on a large scale, fulfills its delivery obligations to the EU, but it should Option should be seriously considered. The most important, legitimate criticism of the EU Commission is that it put the export control mechanism into effect too late. “
Johnson & Johnson Approved
On Thursday afternoon, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is now the fourth product on the market. “This is another important step in ensuring that all citizens have access to a safe and effective vaccine as soon as possible,” said Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
First doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are delivered
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The EU Commission has ordered 200 million doses of the new vaccine, with an option for an additional 200 million. According to the company, the first tranche with 55 million cans should be delivered by the end of June. The preparation has the advantage that it is easy to store and only needs to be inoculated once.
However, there are already doubts as to whether this company will now meet its delivery obligations. The vaccine is produced exclusively in the USA, where there is actually an export ban. Johnson & Johnson should therefore initially serve the US market and only release excess cans for export.
Side effects with Astra Zeneca?
Denmark, Norway and Iceland have since suspended vaccinations with the AstraZeneca preparation. Danish doctors reported frequent cases of thrombosis after such vaccinations. The health authority added cautiously that it was not sure whether there was a connection between the blood clots and the vaccination.
The application is therefore only suspended for two weeks. The EMA in Amsterdam is also investigating a possible death from Denmark. “A wide range of documentation shows that the vaccine is both safe and effective,” explains the head of the Danish office, Soren Brostroem. However, the supervisory authorities would have to investigate all indications of possible serious side effects, in Denmark as in other European countries.
Two other cases of similar side effects had been reported from Austria, where a woman had died from a series of thromboses and another patient was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism. The EMA has since investigated these incidents and stated that they were not caused by the vaccine. However, they want to check the batch in question again carefully. In principle, the vaccine production process is constantly monitored and quality controls are carried out on an ongoing basis. Nevertheless, a production error cannot be ruled out. The Baltic states and Luxembourg have also stopped using the vaccine from this production series.
EU export control extended
The EU Commission has now announced that the control mechanism for the export of COVID-19 vaccine will be extended until the end of June. It was introduced at the end of January when the dispute with Great Britain over AstraZeneca’s contract performance began. The regulation should only serve to ensure that the EU keeps track of how much vaccine is supplied from its area to the rest of the world. The Commission reassured them at the time that they did not want to block exports.
However, last week Italy suddenly applied the regime and banned 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from being exported to Australia. Prime Minister Mario Draghi justified this with the critical pandemic situation in the country and the slow deliveries by the pharmaceutical companies.
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