The EU will urge the US to permit the export of millions of doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to Europe as Brussels scrambles to bridge supply shortfalls that have hobbled its inoculation drive. The European Commission plans to raise the matter in forthcoming transatlantic discussions aimed at boosting collaboration on the fight against Covid-19, EU officials said.
The EU also wants Washington to ensure the free flow of shipments of crucial vaccine ingredients needed in European production, including for groundbreaking mRNA technology vaccines. The European push to access US production of the AstraZeneca jab — which was made in collaboration with Oxford university — comes as the company battles to meet firstquarter 2021 EU delivery targets already slashed because of production problems in the bloc.
AstraZeneca has also said it intends to source half of its planned second-quarter supply to the EU from elsewhere in the world. The European Commission told the Financial Times: “We trust that we can work together with the US to ensure that vaccines produced or bottled in the US for the fulfilment of vaccine producers’ contractual obligations with the EU will be fully honoured. ”
The EU move comes after it emerged this week that Italy and the commission had blocked a shipment of AstraZeneca jabs to Australia. That stoked global tensions and fears of vaccine hoarding. The EU is urgently trying to boost a vaccine rollout that has trailed those in both the US and the UK.
AstraZeneca declined to comment on the EU effort to access its US production. Joe Biden, US president, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, discussed pandemic co-operation on Friday. The US and EU are both big vaccine producers and have a “strong interest” in working together for the good functioning of Supply chains, the commission said after the call.