US says it won’t send vaccines to EU anytime soon
WASHINGTON has told the EU that it should not expect to receive AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in the US anytime soon, two EU sources said yesterday, in a new blow to the bloc’s supplies.
The US message could complicate vaccination plans in the 27-nation bloc, which has been grappling since January with delays in deliveries from vaccine makers.
“The US told us there was no way it would ship AstraZeneca vaccines to the EU,” said a senior official directly involved in EU-US talks.
AstraZeneca told the EU earlier this year it would cut its supplies in the second quarter by at least half – to less than 90 million doses – EU sources said, after a bigger reduction in the first three months of the year. Later, however, AstraZeneca offered to partly plug the gap with vaccines produced outside Europe, including in the US.
A senior EU diplomat said that the European Commission (EC) told member states’ diplomats at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday that the bloc should not expect any exports from the US “at this point in time”.
“Basically the situation is such that any exports are tricky, but there is a willingness to talk,” the diplomat said. AstraZeneca declined to comment. It is not known what is behind the possible move on exports. It is unclear whether AstraZeneca is producing much vaccine in the US, or if the US would apply a restrictive measure on trade. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has not yet been approved for use in the US.
The move comes after Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and an illness from a pulmonary embolism.
EC spokesman Eric Mamer yesterday said: “We want to work with the
US to keep the supply chains open.”
The US stance could jeopardise AstraZeneca’s attempts to bring deliveries closer to its contractual obligation with the EU of 180 million doses in the second quarter. US President Joe Biden said this week the US government would first give Americans Covid-19 vaccines, but any surplus would be shared with the world.
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines are produced in the US in a plant near Baltimore run by Catalent, which has been authorised by the EU drugs regulator as a manufacturer of vaccine ingredients.