Inspectors find 29 million AstraZeneca doses in Italy

European officials said they found 29 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Italy during a snap inspection, a new twist in the bloc’s efforts to ban exports of the shot to the UK.

The doses found at the Anagni factory had not been recorded by the authorities. It is a significant find at a time when the manufacturer is under fire for delivering only 30 million doses of the vaccine to the EU this quarter.

La Stampa newspaper said the vaccine batches were manufactured by Halix, a Dutch plant not approved in the EU. Vaccines produced there cannot be used in the EU until that approval is received.

AstraZeneca said some of the doses had been allocated to be shipped under the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative, while the remainder was waiting for quality control before distribution.

A surge in Covid-19 has put Europe’s leaders under pressure to bring the pandemic under control. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to make an about-turn yesterday on plans for a fiveday shutdown over Easter.

She said that it could not be put in place at such short notice.

“This mistake is mine alone,” Mrs Merkel said.

The EU yesterday unveiled its plan to tighten vaccine export control rules to prevent what it regards as a one-way flow of doses leaving the bloc.

The plan, which will go before an EU leaders’ summit today, would limit vaccine exports to countries such as Britain that produce some vaccines but do not send any to the bloc.

It stops short of a full export ban but any shipment of doses due to leave the EU will be assessed on the basis of the destination country’s inoculation rate and vaccine exports.

The proposal was announced as millions of AstraZeneca doses were reportedly found in Italy. Brussels ordered an Italian government inspection of the Anagni factory, south-east of Rome, where AstraZeneca vaccines are bottled. The snap inspection uncovered 29 million doses that the authorities had not recorded.

The EU is embroiled in a months-long dispute with AstraZeneca over a shortage of deliveries.

Europe will now insist on reciprocity as vaccination rates in Britain rise but the EU’s inoculations proceed slowly.

The bloc said it wants two AstraZeneca plants in the UK to deliver doses to EU countries.

The UK government is understood to be willing to share supplies from its Halix plant in the Netherlands with the EU.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc exported vaccines to dozens of countries but “open roads should run in both directions”.

“This is why the European Commission will introduce the principles of reciprocity and proportionality into the EU’s existing authorisation mechanism,” she said.

“The EU has an excellent portfolio of different vaccines and we have secured more than enough doses for the entire population. But we have to ensure timely and sufficient vaccine deliveries to EU citizens. Every day counts.”

Ms von der Leyen said the EU approved the export of 41 million vaccine doses to 33 countries in the past six weeks and believes the bloc is at the forefront of international vaccine-sharing efforts.

Under the current export control system, only one shipment in 381 has been barred.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday told a meeting of MPs that capitalism and greed were the reasons for the success of Britain’s Covid-19 vaccination drive.

He also praised pharmaceutical companies for developing the vaccines in record time.

But his remarks could provide ammunition for the EU countries embroiled in a bitter row with AstraZeneca over the shortfall in supplies.

Mr Johnson’s comments, reported by The Sun newspaper, were made during a Zoom meeting with MPs from the ruling Conservative Party.

“The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends,” Mr Johnson said. He later said that he regretted saying this, and repeatedly asked MPs to “forget I said that”.

It is understood the prime minister did not compare the UK’s vaccination campaign with those of EU countries during his address.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was not in the meeting.

“The prime minister always acknowledges the strong success that we’ve had in terms of the vaccine, not just the roll-out, which is incredible, but also our ability as a country to develop the vaccine, and the role that pharmaceutical companies and science and technology has played in that,” she said.

Britain is gradually easing lockdown restrictions in a plan underpinned by the success of its national vaccination campaign.