EU and AstraZeneca seek to resolve vaccine supply crisis

The EU and the UK-based Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca have vowed to work together to resolve a bitter row over supply shortages to the 27-member bloc.

This comes after crisis talks which both sides described as "constructive".

AstraZeneca earlier said it could deliver only a fraction of the doses it promised in January-March, blaming production issues at European plants.

But the EU said the firm must honour its commitments and deliver the jabs by diverting stock from the UK.

The contract between the EU and AstraZeneca contains a confidentiality clause - but the EU has asked the company to release the details nevertheless.

Reports said last week the EU would get 60% fewer vaccine doses - about 50 million jabs - than promised in the first quarter of the year.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, has not yet been approved by the EU, although this is expected on Friday.

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The EU - which has been criticised for the slow rollout of its inoculations - is also facing delays with supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The bloc has a much bigger deal with the US-German vaccine-maker.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I'm confident of our supplies and we'll keep rolling out vaccines as fast we possibly can. I am very pleased at the moment that we have the fastest rollout of vaccines in Europe by some way."

What did the EU and AstraZeneca say?
After Wednesday's crisis talks, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides expressed regret over the "continued lack of clarity on the delivery schedule".

"We will work with the company to find solutions and deliver vaccines rapidly for EU citizens," she tweeted.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said the company had "committed to even closer co-ordination to jointly chart a path for the delivery of our vaccine over the coming months".

Ms Kyriakides stressed before the talks that UK factories, which have not experienced production problems, were part of its deal with the company and had to deliver.

"The 27 European Union member states are united that AstraZeneca needs to deliver on its commitments in our agreements," she said.

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In an interview on Tuesday with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the contract compelled it to make its "best effort", rather than obliging it to meet a set deadline for delivery of the vaccines.

Ms Kyriakides said this characterisation of the deal was "not correct or acceptable".

She added that the EU rejected "the logic of first-come first-serve".

"That may work at the neighbourhood butcher's but not in contracts, and not in our advanced purchase agreements."

Ms Kyriakides appeared to be responding to Mr Soriot, who said that the UK had signed its contract with AstraZeneca three months before the EU and that this extra time had been used to "fix all the glitches we experienced" regarding the UK.

What are the supply problems?
The EU signed a deal with AstraZeneca in August for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million more, but the UK-Swedish company has reported production delays at two plants, one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium.

Mr Soriot said production was "basically two months behind where we wanted to be".

Italy was among the countries threatening to sue over the delays.

The EU had hoped that, as soon as approval was given, delivery would start straight away, with some 80 million doses arriving in the 27 nations by March.

Officials have not confirmed publicly how big the shortfall will be, but Reuters news agency reported that deliveries would be reduced to 31 million in the first quarter of this year.

The EU has also ordered 2.3 billion doses of vaccines from four other companies, of which only those of Pfizer/BioNTech (600 million) and Moderna (160 million) have been approved.

Pfizer has not been able to supply the 12.5 million vaccines it promised the EU by the end of 2020, saying last week it was delaying shipments for the next few weeks because of work to increase capacity at its Belgian processing plant.

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As a result of delays, Spanish officials said the Madrid region was halting almost all vaccinations for two weeks and supplies in Catalonia were also threatened.

The EU has threatened to restrict the exports of vaccines made within the bloc to deal with the shortfall.

The EU has been criticised for the slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations across its member states.

Roll-out has been hit by delays, supply problems and a row with one of the vaccine makers, AstraZeneca.

Now, the EU is warning it may tighten exports of vaccines produced in its member states, and has said it will "take any action required to protect its citizens".

How does the EU vaccine scheme work?
The EU co-ordinates the purchase of vaccines for all of its 27 member states.

The European Commission says this approach avoids competition between EU countries, as they can all access vaccines on the same terms, irrespective of their size or purchasing power. It says negotiating the purchase of large quantities also secures reductions in costs.

Once the EU buys the vaccines, it distributes them between countries on the basis of their population.

What is the row over the AstraZeneca vaccine?
Supply problems were announced by AstraZeneca, provoking criticism from the EU after hearing it would receive a reduced number of doses of the vaccine.

The UK-Swedish company has blamed manufacturing problems in two plants - one in Belgium and another in the Netherlands.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, this month. The EU signed a deal for 300 million doses in August.

Pascal Soriot, the head of AstraZeneca, has said production is "basically two months behind where we wanted to be", adding that the EU's late decision to sign contracts had given limited time to sort out glitches in the supply chain.

Mr Soriot said the UK contract was signed three months earlier, giving them more time to fix problems.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has said their contract with the company "does not specify that any country - or the UK - has any priority, because it signed earlier". She insisted that AstraZeneca's two UK plants "had to deliver" doses.

The EU has also warned that it could tighten the export of vaccines produced in the bloc. This could affect the UK, as Pfizer's Belgian plant supplies the UK.

The EU placed export controls on personal protective equipment in March 2020 that lasted for about two months. It said it was making sure member states had enough supplies by requiring the authorisation of sales outside the bloc.

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