The boss of the laboratory AstraZeneca on Thursday displayed his
"optimism"
on the ability of his group to catch up in the second quarter of its delays in the delivery of anti-Covid vaccines to the EU, thanks to an increase in production, during a hearing tense in front of MEPs.
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AstraZeneca announced at the end of January that it could only deliver 40 million doses to the Twenty-Seven in the first quarter, out of the 120 million it had initially promised, due to manufacturing difficulties at a Belgian plant.
Speaking by videoconference to the European Parliament, Pascal Soriot, CEO of the Swedish-British group, said he was
"disappointed"
by
"the weaker than expected performance"
in the EU, but
"optimistic"
about an increase of production in the second quarter.
"There is a great diversity of production sites around the world, including the United States"
, which could
"help supply the EU"
, so that
“We will be able to catch up (the delay) up to the volumes that we had planned to deliver initially,”
he said.
Part of the production delivered to the UK
The French boss of AstraZeneca, heard by MEPs alongside other leaders of pharmaceutical groups, explained that the production of the laboratory was carried out just in time, without constituting stocks, and that the slightest problem in a factory had repercussions immediately on deliveries.
Pascal Soriot also admitted that part of AstraZeneca's production in the EU had been delivered to the United Kingdom.
A factory in the Netherlands had thus been
"initially reserved for the United Kingdom"
, but will now be used to supply Europeans, he explained - while suggesting that, on the contrary, the group will not resort to UK factories to deliver to the EU.
The UK production chain
"is designed to supply the 65 million people living in the UK"
, and diverting their production to the mainland
"would not make a big difference"
to the 450 million people in the EU, he said. he argued.
However, the EU had asked AstraZeneca to use its British factories, as provided for in the contract signed in August 2020, to fulfill orders for the Twenty-Seven.
At the end of January, Brussels had set up a mechanism to control shipments outside the EU of vaccines produced there and to ban non-
“legitimate”
exports
.
Before the European Parliament, Pascal Soriot
"was not able to confirm that AstraZeneca will honor the planned delivery of 180 million doses"
in the second quarter, lamented MEP Pascal Canfin (Renew, Liberals), warning against “new tensions” with the laboratory.