BRUSSELS – The Union Medicines Agency gives the green light to two new vaccine production plants in Europe. These are the Halix plant in Leiden, the Netherlands, for the AstraZeneca compound and the one in Marbrurgo, Germany, for the Pfizer-BioNTech immunizer. “I welcome Ema’s decision – he commented Ursula von der Leyen – increasing the production capacity of vaccines in Europe is our priority ”. On the other hand, the German president of the European Commission is now fully committed to finding new sites where to churn out vaccines to relaunch the continent’s immunization campaign. Work developed together with Thierry breton, responsible for Industry in Brussels. With the Frenchman who guaranteed: “Europe should be the world leader in the production of coronavirus vaccines by the end of the year with 52 factories taking part in the process across the continent”.
Pfizer-BioNTech is the pharmaceutical company that, together with Moderna, has so far complied with the deliveries set out in the contracts and the expansion of its production capacity with the Marburg site is good news for Brussels, which has closed two contracts for a total of 600 million doses. And in the second quarter Pfizer will continue to be central to the European vaccination campaign as it is expected to deliver 200 million doses to EU partners (10 million more than expected) out of a total of 360 million expected by all Big Pharma approved by the Ema (in addition to Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca).
The situation of AstraZeneca is totally different, which so far has delivered just 40% of the agreed vials, so much so that the EU Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyiriakides, he explains: “Had it not been for insufficient deliveries from AstraZeneca, the EU vaccination rates could have been almost double.” With the opening of the Leiden site, the clash between Brussels and the Anglo-Swedish house will flare up again. Its CEO, Pascal Soriot, has in fact included the Dutch vials in both the contract with the Union and the one with the United Kingdom, which now claims to have them but which the Europeans do not want to unblock. On the other hand, the contract with Europe provided that AstraZeneca’s British plants would also have to supply the continent, but London and the company refused to bring the vaccines across the Channel.
It is no coincidence that Breton guaranteed: “We will ensure that all doses of AstraZeneca remain in Europe until the company honors its commitments.” Kyriakides added: “We now expect the vaccines produced by this site to be delivered to the Member States in the coming days as part of AstraZeneca’s contractual obligation and commitment to European citizens “.
Brussels intends to sue the company if it does not give guarantees and in the meantime it has strengthened the EU export mechanism thanks to which it will be able to block the exit of any vaccine from the Union (since December 77 million have been exported while citizens Europeans received 88 million). Two moves designed to put pressure on the pharmaceutical company and on Boris Johnson accompanied by a message that the European Commission has been circulating for a couple of days: “Great Britain has set up a very risky vaccination campaign and is now dependent on us for second doses”. In short, at the urging of Draghi, Macron and Merkel, the EU goes ahead with the threats and in the meantime seeks an agreement to restore the free trade of vaccines and perhaps to increase production by working together in London for the benefit of both blocs. The agreement is close, even if the United Kingdom continues to show its teeth as the words of the Minister of Local Communities show Robert jenrick according to which the UK is “confident” that it has tightened the doses and “has no reason to fear” shortages of ampoules.
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