Plan B Forum

The EU has threatened to block exports of coronavirus vaccines to countries outside the bloc such as Britain, after AstraZeneca was accused of failing to give a satisfactory explanation for a huge shortfall of promised doses to member states.

The pharmaceutical company’s new distribution plans were said to be “unacceptable” after it “surprisingly” informed the European commission on Friday that there would be significant shortfalls on the original schedule.

The EU has been due to receive 100m doses in the first quarter of this year. But it is feared that the bloc will only receive half of that despite making large advance purchases ahead of authorisation of the vaccine by the European medicines agency.

In a heated call with AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, on Monday, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the company must live up to its contractual obligations. The EMA is expected to authorise the vaccine by the end of this week.

Von der Leyen’s spokesperson said: “She made it clear that she expects AstraZeneca to deliver on the contractual arrangements foreseen in the advance purchasing agreement.

“She reminded Mr Soriot that the EU has invested significant amounts in the company up front precisely to ensure that production is ramped up even before the conditional market authorisation is delivered by the European Medicines Agency.

“Of course, production issues can appear with the complex vaccine, but we expect the company to find solutions and to exploit all possible flexibilities to deliver swiftly.”

The EU’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, made a televised statement to express her frustration at the company’s behaviour, warning that the answers so far provided had not been satisfactory.

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The EU’s vaccine procurement strategy is under scrutiny after member states struggled to roll out rapid vaccinations in the first weeks of the year, falling behind the UK and the US in the early race to inoculate citizens against Covid-19.

While the UK has administered more than 10 doses per 100 residents and the US has administered just over six per 100, the EU is languishing at under two doses per 100 residents, according to FT data.

The widening gap has sparked growing anxiety in European capitals, especially as already strained supplies of vaccine have suffered further setbacks. In the latest blow to vaccination plans, European officials on Friday said first-quarter deliveries of AstraZeneca’s shot were likely to be cut by more than half because of what the company had warned was reduced capacity in its EU supply chain.

AstraZeneca’s chief executive has insisted the UK will come first for vaccines as he rejected calls to divert doses to the European Union following a breakdown in supply.

Amid a growing row, Pascal Soriot, the French head of the pharmaceutical giant, said the UK was benefiting from being early to sign a contract for 100m doses.

There is growing anger in Brussels and EU capitals at AstraZeneca’s announcement on Friday of a shortfall of more than 60% on the intended schedule of deliveries to the bloc in the first quarter of this year.


While the UK has administered vaccine first doses to about 10% of adults and plans to vaccinate the most vulnerable 15 million – including all over-70s – by mid-February, the EU has reached 2% so far. The UK’s regulator approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in late December and the EU’s is expected to do so on Friday.

But Soriot said Downing Street would have first claim on the doses manufactured in the UK and that the EU would have to wait. “The UK agreement was reached in June, three months before the European one,” he said. “As you could imagine, the UK government said the supply coming out of the UK supply chain would go for the UK first. Basically, that’s how it is.”

The European commission did not deny claims on Tuesday that during heated talks EU officials had asked the Anglo-Swedish company to redirect doses made in the UK to make up for problems at a Belgian plant.

In a speech to the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, made clear her anger at AstraZeneca’s approach, warning the EU “means business”.

“The EU and others helped with money to build research capacities and production facilities,” she said. “Europe invested billions to help develop the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines. To create a truly global common good. And now, the companies must deliver. They must honour their obligations.”

The commission is to release details of a new export register by the end of the week to oblige vaccine suppliers to notify it of exports – with the German government raising the spectre of a block on the movement of doses outside the EU.

Soriot called for calm, insisting the UK had a right to the doses produced with scientists at Oxford University. In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he said: “In the EU agreement it is mentioned that the manufacturing sites in the UK were an option for Europe – but only later. But we’re moving very quickly, the supply in the UK is very rapid.

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Brussels today stepped up its Covid-19 vaccine war with AstraZeneca by insisting their contract allows them to grab millions of doses made in the UK as the bloc unveils new powers that could stop Pfizer jabs destined for British arms crossing the Channel from Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen, the German president of the European Commission, said the EU's deal with the pharmaceutical giant is 'crystal clear' that supplies would come from four factories including two in Britain.

The UK signed a deal with AstraZeneca in May for 100million doses all made at labs in Oxford and Staffordshire and put into vials at a facility in Wrexham. The EU signed up for 100million doses of the British-designed jab three months later in August.


Ms von der Leyen said today that AstraZeneca, who warned Brussels this week that its first delivery at the end of March will be down 60 per cent, has offered 'no plausible reasons' for production problems.

She told Deutschlandfunk radio: 'There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear.' She said the contract set out delivery amounts for December and the first three quarters of 2021, and also mentioned four production sites, two of which are in Britain.

Her extraordinary statement this morning came as the bloc prepares to today unveil new powers that could see the shipment of millions of vaccine doses to Britain being blocked within days.

As the row over the EU jabs shortage intensifies, the European Commission will set out a mechanism to allow member states to refuse vaccine exports.

The move will heighten fears about whether Britain's expected supply of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine – which is manufactured in Belgium – could be disrupted. Britain has ordered 40 million doses.

It came as Belgian health authorities revealed they had been sent into an AstraZeneca factory in the town of Seneffe where doses of its vaccine are being made. The commission requested the inspection due to doubts over the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm's explanation for its shortfall in deliveries to the bloc.

To add to the complications, Germany's top vaccine panel said it is not recommending the AstraZeneca jab only for over-65s because there is not enough evidence on whether it works for the elderly.

Tory MP for Clwyd West, David Jones, said: 'German efforts to cast doubt on the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine make the EU's extreme eagerness to get their hands on it all the more perplexing'.

The European Medicines Agency is today due to approve the AstraZeneca jab for use in the bloc but Germany expects the regulator to impose restrictions on who it can be given to.

German health minister Jens Spahn told a press conference: 'We're not expecting an authorisation without limits.'

Europe is facing increasing pressure to back down over the vaccine row amid warnings that the continent's rhetoric is 'sounding like Donald Trump'.