PARIS – The European Union (EU) has not renewed orders for AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine beyond next month, and is not certain that it will, said the bloc’s internal market commissioner today.
EU last month launched legal action against the pharmaceutical giant over vaccine delivery shortfalls that hampered efforts to kick-start inoculations across the bloc.
Public confidence in the AstraZeneca jab, meanwhile, has taken a blow over worries of links to very rare blood clots in the brain.
Some member states have restricted use to older people despite the bloc’s medicines agency insisting the jab’s benefits outweigh the risks.
“We haven’t renewed the contract beyond the month of June,” commissioner Thierry Breton told French radio.
“Whether we do remains to be seen.”
Breton said this does not necessarily mean the end of EU’s vaccine dealings with the British-Swedish firm.
“It’s not done. Wait and see.”
His remarks come a day after commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said EU has concluded a deal with rival drugmaker Pfizer-BioNTech for up to 1.8 billion extra Covid-19 vaccine doses.
The contract, on top of the 600 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses the commission has already secured, aims to supply the bloc – population 450 million – with enough doses for booster shots, said EU.
The commission said AstraZeneca looks set to deliver only a third of the 300 million doses it promised by next month.
EU initially intended to use the AstraZeneca jab as the main workhouse to power the bloc’s inoculation drive, but has now switched to the more expensive Pfizer vaccine as its mainstay.
Pfizer is expected to deliver 250 million doses across Europe during the second quarter of this year, as the 27 nations look to meet a target of vaccinating 70% of adults by July. – AFP, May 9, 2021
