The outbreak of war"! British company's breach of promise to reduce vaccine supply angers EU

　　AstraZeneca violated its promise to reduce vaccine supply and angered the EU!

War for vaccines broke out in Europe!

　　[Global Times reporter Sun Wei Aoki Hu Hao] The British "Guardian" reported on the 26th that a "war" broke out between the European Union and the United Kingdom over the supply of the new crown vaccine. Plans to drastically cut the supply of vaccines, the European Union threatened to intensify scrutiny, delay or even interrupt the supply of vaccines produced in EU countries to the UK.

At the same time, German media also broke the news that the actual effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the elderly is "extremely low", even less than 10%.

AstraZeneca was "very angry" at this.

　　Agence France-Presse stated on the 26th that the current European Union countries are slow in vaccination. In the context of the continuous spread of the epidemic, the European Union is extremely dissatisfied with the US and British pharmaceutical giants "unreasonably" cutting vaccine supplies.

With the supply of vaccines as the fuse, the already serious barrier between the EU and the UK has further widened.

"The Guardian" said that because of dissatisfaction with AstraZeneca's "discount" in vaccine supply, the European Union "threatened to interrupt the supply of vaccine to the UK."

The head of the EU's health department decided to require pharmaceutical companies to submit a declaration in advance when exporting vaccines to countries outside the EU, otherwise they will not be approved.

This means that Pfizer in the United States, which produces vaccines at its Belgian factory and then ships it to the UK, must obtain permission from the EU in advance.

The UK, which has ordered Pfizer's vaccine, will face the risk of "cutting off the supply."

The UK has ordered at least 40 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer.

　　For the United Kingdom, which is deeply in the plight of the epidemic, the delay in supply of vaccines is unbearable.

In August last year, the European Union ordered at least 300 million doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca and paid 340 million euros (about 2.67 billion yuan) for this. The latter promised to supply about 80 million doses of vaccine by the end of March this year.

But last Friday, AstraZeneca suddenly stated that due to insufficient production capacity at a vaccine factory, the company could only provide 31 million doses of vaccine to the EU by the end of March, a 60% reduction from the previously promised delivery.

　　The British "Daily Mail" said the move "angered the European Union."

On the 25th local time, European Commission President Von der Lein and AstraZeneca President Pascal Subkoh had a "fierce" conversation about the supply of the new crown vaccine.

The former’s spokesperson said that the European Commission’s president “sternly reminded” the other party that the EU had already paid a large sum of money in advance to support the company’s capacity expansion.

The latter stated that the company is "making every effort to ensure the provision of vaccines to millions of Europeans."

　　Agence France-Presse said that regarding the supply of vaccines, the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Commissioner Kiryakidis issued a statement on the 25th, saying that AstraZeneca’s plan to reduce vaccine deliveries in the next few weeks is “unacceptable. ".

The European Commission will establish a vaccine export transparency mechanism to strengthen the review of vaccine exports.

Kyriakidis said that AstraZeneca’s explanation of the reduction in vaccine supply “lack of sufficient details” to be unconvincing.

She wrote to the company last weekend to emphasize to the other party the importance of complying with the agreed delivery schedule, and asked to know where the company has produced how many vaccines so far, whether it has been shipped and where.

The European Commission and health officials from member states also held video conferences with representatives of the company.

Kiryakidis said that the European Commission has proposed to "establish an export transparency mechanism as soon as possible", which requires any vaccine exported from EU countries to obtain EU approval.

　　British public opinion believes that this is the EU's "retaliation" against Britain in terms of vaccine supply.

"Daily Mail" stated that in addition to a tough attitude on vaccine supply, some EU experts also publicly questioned the effectiveness of British vaccines.

German "Bild" and "Business Daily" recently quoted German government officials as saying that EU experts revealed to them that, according to an undisclosed clinical report, the actual effectiveness of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK for people over 65 is only 8 %.

In response, an AstraZeneca spokesperson retorted that the claim that the company’s vaccine is less than 10% effective is “100% false”.

The British Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) supports the large-scale use of the vaccine.

According to the company's paper in the international authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" in November last year, "all elderly people have developed antibodies in their bodies after the second vaccination."

　　Agence France-Presse stated that the European Union and its member states are quite dissatisfied due to the continuous delay of supply plans by American and British pharmaceutical companies, and intends to establish a vaccine export transparency mechanism as an important way to restrict vaccine suppliers.

European Council President Michelle said on the 24th that the European Union would urge pharmaceutical companies to abide by previously signed contracts, and said that when necessary, "take all means" to ensure the timely supply of vaccines.

German Health Minister Jens Spann said that the EU needs to strengthen its scrutiny to understand which vaccines are being exported, and only in this way can it understand whether contracts with suppliers are being executed fairly.

Obtaining EU approval before the vaccine is exported is a "reasonable requirement".

　　According to the Guardian, as the development and production of vaccines advances, European countries have initiated vaccination plans, but the vaccination schedules vary widely among EU countries, and the overall schedule lags behind that of Britain and the United States.

According to statistics, currently only about 8.5 million of the 450 million people in EU member states have received at least one dose of vaccine, with an average of only 1.89 doses per 100 people.

In the United Kingdom, 10.38 doses of vaccine are vaccinated for every 100 people, compared with 6.6 doses in the United States.

Differences in vaccination further exacerbated the "transatlantic contradiction."

Although Europe and the United States have cooperated in vaccine research and development, competition and contradictions among countries are very acute in terms of vaccine supply related to epidemic prevention.