Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has hit back at criticism from the European Union over delays in the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine to the bloc.
AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot shot back at EU officials who criticised the laboratory for supplying “considerably fewer doses” than agreed, saying his company “certainly does not take vaccines from Europeans to sell them elsewhere at a profit”.
The French CEO defended the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company an interview given on Tuesday to LENA (Leading European Newspaper Alliance) and published in several European newspapers.
The laboratory, partnered with the University of Oxford, has pledged not to make a profit on the sale of vaccines during the pandemic.
Brussels raised its tone on Monday in its stand-off with AstraZeneca, deeming the delays in the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine “unacceptable”. The European Commission is now demanding “transparency” on exports outside the EU of doses produced in the bloc.
Soriot claims to have had some start-up issues in the UK supply chain as well, but “the UK contract was signed three months before the EU contract. So with the UK, we had three more months to resolve the problems encountered”.
While the EU regulatory green light for this vaccine is expected on Friday, the British laboratory announced last week that deliveries would be lower than expected in the first quarter due to a “drop in production” at a European manufacturing site.
The slowdown in production has alarmed EU countries, already on edge after difficulties in the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It increases the pressure on the European Commission, which negotiated the pre-order contracts on behalf of the EU27.
These relate to up to 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, which has the advantage of being cheaper to produce than its rivals, while being easier to store and transport.
“I think that the populations of Europe are extremely stressed and tired by this pandemic which has lasted for a year. Governments are under pressure,” Pascal Soriot added, specifying that Europe “which represents 5 per cent of the world’s population, will obtain 17 per cent of our production in February”.
The AstraZeneca boss also affirmed in the interview that the laboratory is working “with the University of Oxford on a vaccine that will target” the South African variant of COVID-19, a virus more transmissible than the first version of the new coronavirus.
