Corona virus Delays, pressures, complaints: the vaccine becomes a headache for AstraZeneca

LONDON. AstraZeneca, the Corona virus vaccine it becomes a headache. Its effectiveness has been questioned, the European Union is furious at its delivery delays and could face legal action.

Just a few weeks ago, the British laboratory AstraZeneca was applauded for its rapid development alongside scientists from the Oxford University a vaccine that has raised high expectations in the fight against the pandemic. Vaccine to be produced and distributed by Argentina and Mexico for Latin America.

In addition to being cheaper and easier to transport than that of Pfizer / BioNTech, the British group promised to provide it at cost price for not take advantage of the pandemic.

But the delays announced concerning the doses initially planned in the European Union (EU) put him in the crosshairs of the bloc. The European authorities have published the contract signed with the laboratory to remind it of its commitment to “produce 300 million doses of the vaccine, no profit or loss. “

The agreement with the EU ensures that AstraZeneca will do “everything possible” to increase its production capacity, while recalling that compliance with the contract constitutes “a legal, valid and binding obligation”, according to the text published by the Commission, in which confidential clauses were hidden.

Italy he even threatened legal action – also against Pfizer – for “receiving the promised doses”.

These stresses occur when the injectable AstraZeneca has just received the green light from European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the use of all adults.

“We welcome the positive opinion of the European Medicines Agency CHMP on our vaccine and look forward to the conditional marketing authorization from the EU,” the company said.

Shortly before, the German government said it hoped the vaccine would be approved only for those under 65, arguing that “there is not enough data” on its effectiveness in the elderly.

So here is AstraZeneca he does not show that he is “making the best reasonable efforts” to honor his commitments, he risks possible legal action, he says.

But Russ Mold, analyst at AJ Bell, relativizes financial consequences for the laboratory. “Despite the German questions and the apparent unwillingness of the FDA [la autoridad farmacéutica estadounidense] to approve the vaccine, many other countries seem to want to continue using it, ”he said.

Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, points out that the vaccine race to contain the coronavirus pandemic has allowed the group “to gain experience in the field of vaccines that it did not have until then”.

“The fact that this vaccine is so requested must not cause lasting damage to its reputation, but on the contrary to draw attention to the important contribution of the company to shedding light at the end of the tunnel of repeated confinements, ”he concludes.

Politicians of the EU They are under intense pressure to explain why their countries have performed only a fraction of the vaccinations performed in the UK, which left the single market four weeks ago.

– Vaccine nationalism –

In this conflict, “the parties do not appear in a particularly flattering light,” CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson told AFP, saying “the prospect of nationalism around vaccines is worrying.”

The European Commission on Friday announced the adoption of a mechanism by which laboratories that have signed preliminary sales agreements with the EU must obtain an “export authorization” before withdrawing vaccines manufactured in it outside European territory.

This is the case, for example, of the American Pfizer, which produces in Belgium the doses it delivers to the United Kingdom, outside the bloc since Brexit.

According to Hewson, this could cause backlash in the UK if its supply were cut.

Bloc officials were furious earlier this month when the drug maker Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca announced that most of the vaccine doses he had promised to deliver to the EU in March would be delayed due to production issues in Belgium.

AstraZeneca produces millions of doses in Britain, but told the EU that it cannot divert any to the mainland until it fulfills a contract with London. Meanwhile, London imported doses of vaccine made in the EU Pfizer / BioNTech.

The EU announced his plan for tighten regulations on coronavirus vaccine exports made on the block amid fears that some doses it has agreed with AstraZeneca could be diverted elsewhere.

AFP and AP Agency