British drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZ) and the European Union (EU) were unable to reach a resolution in their ongoing COVID-19 vaccine deadlock yesterday.
Last week, AZ said that it would reduce initial deliveries of its Oxford-partnered COVID-19 vaccine to the EU by 60% in the first quarter of 2021.
AZ said it is aiming to deliver 31 million doses to the EU in Q1. A senior official told Reuters that the reduction in anticipated deliveries is due to production problems.
Previously, around 80 million doses of the AZ/Oxford University vaccine were expected to be delivered by the end of March.
On Wednesday, EU officials met with AZ representatives to discuss the delivery reduction and hold-ups, but the talks failed to provide any real solutions.
“We regret the continued lack of clarity on the delivery schedule and request a clear plan from AstraZeneca for the fast delivery of the quantity of vaccines that we reserved for Q1,” said Stella Kyriakides, EU Health Commissioner.
“Pharmaceutical companies and vaccine developers have moral, societal and contractual responsibilities which they need to uphold. The view that the company is not obliged to deliver is neither correct nor acceptable,” Kyriakides added in a tweet.
In a statement, AZ said that it will still deliver tens of mullions of vaccine doses to the EU in February and March.
AZ chief executive officer Pascal Soriot also told the Italian newspaper la Repubblica earlier this week that the company could not guarantee the timings of the EU deliveries, due in part to the fact that other countries finalised their orders first – including the UK.
“We’ve had also teething issues like this in the UK supply chain. But the UK contract was signed three months before the European vaccine deal,” Pascal is quoted as saying.
“So, with the UK, we have had an extra three months to fix all the glitches we experienced. As for Europe, we are three months behind in fixing those glitches,” he added.
The EU has an advanced purchase agreement in place for the AZ/Oxford University vaccine for the supply of 400 million doses, delivered in instalments, following regulatory approval.
The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) will meet on 29 January to review all data submitted by AZ regarding the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine.