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AstraZeneca plant in Macclesfield: transparency and planning security required
Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
After days of dispute over the delivery of AstraZeneca's corona vaccine, whose European approval is expected later in the day, the pressure on the pharmaceutical company is growing.
World Medical President Frank Ulrich Montgomery criticized the vaccine manufacturer and called for an export ban for the vaccine.
"The behavior of AstraZeneca is underground," said Montgomery to the editorial network Germany.
"It cannot be that the company exactly keeps its delivery promises for Great Britain, but only delivers a fraction of the vaccine doses promised for the EU," criticized Montgomery and called for a "hard" reaction from the EU.
"If the vaccine is produced on continental European soil, the company must be forbidden from delivering it outside the EU." Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) had already discussed an export ban for vaccines.
Meanwhile, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen urges AstraZeneca to make clear delivery commitments.
"What I ask is transparency and planning security," said von der Leyen on Deutschlandfunk.
A week ago, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company announced a delivery cut, very surprisingly and without a plausible explanation.
The EU orders are binding and not restricted.
"The contract is crystal clear." That is why they want to publish the document this Friday.
"It's not like at the bakery, where you stand in line."
Ursula von der Leyen on Deutschlandfunk
In the past few days, the EU had started to increase the pressure on the manufacturer in the vaccination dispute over late deliveries of the vaccine.
Steps have been taken to introduce an export ban for the AstraZeneca vaccine from the EU.
On Thursday, Belgium also sent a group of inspectors to a Belgian plant that produces the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The inspectors took samples and documents with them, they were looking for clues as to whether AstraZeneca actually had technical difficulties - or whether in truth it was supplying large quantities of vaccine primarily to Great Britain.
Von der Leyen defends approval policy
In view of the short development time of the vaccines within ten months during the pandemic, start-up problems are completely understandable, said von der Leyen.
“That's okay.” But the President of the European Commission added that they wanted an explanation so that solutions could be found together.
Von der Leyen rejected allegations against her address.
The EU Commission concluded the contract with AstraZeneca on time.
The fact that Great Britain ordered earlier does not play a role in the company's delivery obligations.
"It's not like standing in line at the bakery."
Von der Leyen attributed the fact that more than ten percent of the population in Great Britain has been vaccinated once, while in Germany it is only around two percent, to the more detailed examination of the vaccine by the EU drug authority EMA.
Even in this emergency situation, people consciously rely on conditional marketing approval instead of just emergency approval, because there should be "no shortcut to safety".
"You have to take your time for these three or four weeks."
In Germany, the Standing Vaccination Commission has meanwhile recommended that the agent should only be injected to adults under 65 years of age because there was too little test data for older people.
The EU countries have ordered up to 400 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca.
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apr / Reuters / dpa
