Spahn demands export restrictions for EU vaccines

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Health Minister Jens Spahn: "A good sign that our efforts are showing success"

Photo: Janine Schmitz / photothek.de / imago images / photothek

After AstraZeneca announced delays in the delivery of its corona vaccine, Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) reiterated his demand for an export restriction.

He was in favor of "that vaccines that leave the EU need a permit".

In this way, a fair distribution of the funds produced in Europe can be ensured, said Spahn on Tuesday in the ZDF »Morgenmagazin«.

The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced on Friday that it would initially deliver fewer corona vaccine doses to the EU than planned.

In the case of deliveries to Great Britain, however, there should be no delays.

Spahn said the resulting failures should "affect everyone fairly and equally".

It is not about “EU first”, but about “Europe's fair share”, ie a fair share of Europeans in the vaccines.

The EU Commission had previously threatened vaccine manufacturers with an export ban because of broken delivery commitments.

Spahn pointed out that the EU had already pre-financed the development of further AstraZeneca's production capacities.

The EU has invested around 336 million euros to help ramp up the pharmaceutical company's production capacities.

According to the manufacturer, the reason for the delays is problems in "a plant in our European supply chain".

The European Medicines Agency wants to decide on the approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine by Friday.

Vaccine unsuitable for the elderly?

Accusations that the British-Swedish vaccine was unsuitable for older recipients, Spahn did not want to join.

The "Handelsblatt" had reported that the AstraZeneca preparation was only eight percent effective in people over 65 years of age.

The newspaper referred to coalition circles.

Spahn called the reports "speculative".

He wanted to wait with his assessment until the data from the studies had been evaluated, he said on ZDF.

A decision will be made next week on the basis of the scientific findings, "which age groups will be vaccinated with this vaccine first."

AstraZeneca has rejected reports of allegedly very poor effectiveness of its vaccine in seniors.

They were "completely wrong," said a spokesman on Tuesday morning.

The company pointed out, among other things, that the emergency approval from the British Medicines Agency (MHRA) includes the elderly.

A study has shown that the vaccine also induces a strong immune response in seniors.

However, this study also states that there is still too little data on effectiveness in older people due to the low number of cases.

Spahn also mentioned this data problem in his statement.

However, he promised a clarification on the basis of "huge data packets" by the licensing authorities.

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ire / afp / dpa