Vaccine Shortage 

 

This week, we share views from Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, and Ireland on the current vaccine supply dispute between the EU and the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which produces its vaccine in the UK and in Belgium.
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Vaxxing gets taxing 

 

Politiken reports about the production problems that AstraZeneca flagged last week, which are now leading to delays in the delivery to the EU before the European Medicines Agency (EMA) could even approve the vaccine. The article quotes Thomas Senderovitz, director of the Danish Medicines Agency, who told Politiken that at this stage it would be hard to know how many vaccines Denmark would end up with after the first shipment of AstraZenena vaccines. He believes that the first delivery round could leave the EU with half as many vaccine doses as expected. It also remains unclear whether this disruption will jeopardise Denmark’s plan to vaccinate all adults by the end of June. Senderovitz notes that there are myriad issues to take into account when it comes to the delivery of vaccines, such as having the vaccine approved on time, the quality of said vaccine, and producing the right quantities.

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DisAstra

 

El Mundo writes about the increasingly heated dispute between the EU and AstraZeneca and the EU’s struggle to resolve the issue. Earlier this week, the Commission announced that AstraZeneca had declined to join a meeting with Commission representatives. Minutes later, the pharmaceutical company commented that it had never declined this offer and would attend a meeting later. The Commission later on published an email in which it can be read that a representative of AstraZeneca confirms their absence. Meanwhile, Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s CEO, has denied in various interviews the accusations that his company had sold EU-destined vaccines to other countries. He added that the UK had priority over the doses manufactured within the country, something Brussels claims is not true and is not included in the contract.

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That dose it! 

 

Tageblatt discusses the lack of transparency in the contract signed between pharmaceutical companies and the European Commission. Tilly Metz, a Member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg, criticises the lack of openness surrounding the contractual agreements between the Commission and various pharmaceutical companies. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides mentioned a new transparency register this week. With this register, the Commission would aim to keep track of how many vaccine doses are made by producers in the EU, obliging pharmaceutical companies to tell the Commission about all their vaccine exports. Tilly Metz welcomes the efforts to increase transparency but adds that the EU needed to also show solidarity with struggling countries by giving them access to vaccines. She also suggests that pharmaceutical companies should be more transparent about who pays them for vaccination doses, and for how much.

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Under review   

 

The Irish Times writes about the possible limits of the AstraZeneca vaccine which could be approved this week. According to European Medicines Agency executive director Emer Cooke, trials have offered little data on the vaccine’s use in older people. She told MEPs during a committee meeting this week that it was possible to grant vaccine approval only for certain age groups. Meanwhile, further questions have been raised this week over whether the vaccine could be approved for use in older populations, following reports in German media this week. In an attempt to debunk some of the claims published in Germany’s Bild tabloid and Handelsblatt business daily, Germany’s Federal Health Ministry announced that there had been a mix-up of information from clinical trial data. German health minister Jens Spahn said he would speculate neither on the vaccine’s efficacy nor on AstraZeneca’s delivery difficulties.

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