Interview with Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, on EU supplies

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has defended its delayed deployment of the coronavirus vaccine in the EU, saying the drugmaker is “working 24/7” to resolve production issues. But he also noted that the EU ordered three months later than the UK, which meant it was behind in dealing with supply issues.

The EU has reacted angrily to a delay in supplying AstraZeneca with the coronavirus vaccine, which is expected to be approved by the European medicines regulator by the end of the week, at the OR.

The 27-member bloc had expected around 80 million doses of the vaccine by the end of March, but it will currently only receive around 31 million doses. As member states struggle to access vaccine supplies and deploy vaccines, the EU has said it may limit exports of EU-made Covid-19 vaccines.

Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Soriot said delays in the supply of his coronavirus vaccine were caused by various production issues.

“We think we’ve fixed these issues, but we’re basically two months behind where we wanted to be,” he said.

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker had also experienced “start-up issues like this in the UK supply chain,” Soriot noted, but as the UK contract was signed three months before the EU vaccine deal , the company “had an additional three months to resolve any issues. issues we encountered.”

However, he said AstraZeneca still plans to deliver a good chunk of the promised vaccines to the EU in February. “But, you know, if we deliver in February what we plan to deliver, it’s not a small volume. We plan to deliver millions of doses in Europe, it’s not small,” he said. he told the newspaper.

Asked how much the EU could expect to receive, Soriot said that as soon as the vaccine is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), “we will immediately ship at least 3 million doses to Europe, then we’ll have another shipment … about a week later, then the third or fourth week of February. And the goal is to deliver 17 million doses by February. “

“It’s not as good as we would like it to be, but it’s really not that bad,” he said. Globally, Soriot said production capacity will be 100 million doses from February.

Discussions between AstraZeneca and the EU took place on Monday, after which EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the talks had “resulted in dissatisfaction with the lack of clarity and insufficient explanation.”

The EU has asked AstraZeneca to provide it with a detailed plan for vaccine deliveries and when they will be distributed, with further discussions scheduled for Wednesday.

Some countries, including Italy, have threatened legal action against AstraZeneca for the delay. Others have asked why the UK, which relies heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine in its vaccination rollout, has stepped up its vaccination campaign and has yet to experience supply shortages. It has immunized more than 6.8 million people, with at least a first dose of the two-dose vaccine.

Soriot said the UK production plant was more productive and insisted there was no anti-EU backdrop.

“First of all, we have different plants and they have different yields and productivity. One of the highest yielding factories is in the UK because it started earlier. She also had her own issues, but we all solved them. good productivity, but it’s the UK factory because it started earlier. “

“We’re not doing it on purpose. I’m European, I have Europe at heart. Our chairman is Swedish, is European. Our CFO is European. A lot of the management is European. So we want to deal with the Europe as the best we can. “

He noted that the drugmaker had entered into a ‘best effort’ type deal with the EU as it wanted to be supplied at the same time as the UK, even if it had to request the vaccine later. “We didn’t engage with the EU, by the way. It’s not a commitment we have to Europe: it’s a better effort.”

With a coronavirus vaccine developed, clinically tested and approved in less than a year, Soriot said it was natural to run into problems in the process of scaling up.

“We’re going through hundreds of millions, billions of vaccine doses at a very high rate. A year ago we didn’t have a vaccine. When you do that you have problems, you have extension problems, ”he said, adding that there were current problems with the production of the vaccine substance in two European factories.

“For Europe, the drug substance is basically produced in two factories, one in the Netherlands, one in Belgium. The drug product is actually made in Italy and Germany. So from a pharmaceutical point of view, we have full capacity. We have no problem. “The current problems are related to the manufacture of the substance of the drug,” he said.