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Commissioner Thierry Breton: No vaccine export for the time being
Photo: Andreu Dalmau / EPA
The European Union does not want to allow exports of AstraZeneca's vaccine until the company has fulfilled its delivery obligations to EU countries.
"We will make sure that everything stays in Europe until the company honors its promises," said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
The export control mechanism tightened this week is the instrument for this.
The British-Swedish group is accused of failing to fulfill supply agreements with the EU.
The company has drastically reduced its deliveries due to production delays.
AstraZeneca has pledged 120 million doses of corona vaccine to the EU for the first quarter, Breton said.
But the EU only receives 30 million doses.
"We are now in discussions with the company to understand what happened," added the inspector.
The manufacturers Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna, on the other hand, even exceeded their commitments to the EU.
AstraZeneca plant opened in Leiden
Hope that the bottlenecks in the AstraZeneca vaccine could be removed quickly, is making a production facility in Leiden, the Netherlands.
In addition to the Biontech plant in Marburg, the European Medicines Agency also granted approval for them on Friday (more on this here).
The EU Commission introduced export controls on February 1st and tightened them this week with the aim of ensuring that manufacturers supply the EU fairly.
This makes export bans possible.
For fear of countermeasures, these should only be imposed in an emergency.
bah / dpa / Reuters
