AstraZeneca vaccine poised to get EU OK as von der Leyen ups pressure

Brussels (dpa) – The European Union is expected to give the green light to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, with the company under immense pressure to rectify anticipated delivery delays.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is anticipated to recommend the British-Swedish firm’s drug for conditional market authorization.

The European Commission could then give it formal approval within hours, making it the third shot at the bloc’s disposal, along with those made by US-German venture Pfizer-BioNTech and US firm Moderna.

It is thought the EMA might recommend the drug for use only for younger people at first, due to relatively scant data on its efficacy in those aged 65 and up. Germany’s top vaccine committee recommended a similar approach on Thursday.

Regardless of who could get the jab, the EU would still have to contend with significantly smaller initial deliveries from AstraZeneca than promised.

AstraZeneca announced major hold-ups at an EU production site last week, to the consternation of the commission and member states. It now expects to provide only about a third of the promised amount in its initial delivery.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged AstraZeneca to deliver on its commitments to the bloc in comments to German radio early Friday.

“What I demand is transparency and planning certainty,” von der Leyen told the Deutschlandfunk broadcaster.

“The contract is crystal clear,” she said, adding that the plan was to partially publish the document on Friday.

AstraZeneca has argued that it is bound to make its “best effort” amid an unprecedented push to scale up production to meet the huge current demand.

While von der Leyen agreed that teething problems were to be expected due to the fact that vaccines were being developed in such a short space of time, she called for an explanation for AstraZeneca’s difficulties so that both sides could find solutions.

A series of crisis talks have failed to resolve the dispute so far.

In the meantime, the commission is likely to officially recommend on Friday the establishment of an EU “transparency register” on exports of Covid-19 shots outside the bloc until the end of March.

This would also allow blockades on exports of vaccines made in the bloc that the EU feels it is legally entitled to by its agreements with pharmaceutical firms, according to EU officials.

Von der Leyen rejected criticism of the EU’s vaccine strategy in the radio interview, arguing that the fact that Britain inked a deal with AstraZeneca sooner had no bearing on the company’s delivery commitments.

“It is not like standing in the queue at the baker’s,” she said.

Britain has been able to vaccinate more than 10 per cent of its population, while Germany for example only just surpassed the 2-per-cent mark.

But this was down to EMA conducting more thorough tests rather than the emergency-use procedures seen in Britain and other countries, von der Leyen said, adding that there was “no short-cut for safety.”