EU threatens AstraZeneca: "No exports until it fulfils contract".

LondonDirect threat from the President of the European Commission to AstraZeneca. The pharmaceutical company will no longer export vaccines from EU territory as long as it does not fulfil its contract. The announcement was made by Ursula von der Leyen in a meeting with women journalists on Monday in Brussels, with whom she met on the occasion of International Women's Day, and also in an interview with a newspaper in Germany.

The export restriction will remain in place until the manufacturer significantly increases its delivery commitments to Brussels. "AstraZeneca has to increase its efforts. Otherwise, we cannot allow exports," he said.

Von der Leyen has also assured that, so far, AstraZeneca has only delivered 10% of what was agreed. In the first quarter of the year, the company had pledged to reach 90m doses and then lower the amount to 31m and then revise it upwards to 40m. But if the percentage given by Von der Leyen is accurate, in this case it would only have delivered so far between 9m according to initial estimates, and 10.7m, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

In any case, this is less than a quarter of what it finally committed to deliver at the end of January (40m), when it first communicated that it could not meet what it had agreed to. Two weeks ago, in addition, AstraZeneca also informed the Brussels authorities that it would again fail to meet the supply items agreed for the second half of 2021. Of the 180m doses committed, it will not even reach half.

Von der Leyen has taken as an example of operability the case of the 250,000 vaccines that Italy blocked, and that AstraZeneca wanted to send to Australia last week. In this sense, the President of the Commission has stated that the company has to explain why it can make a shipment to a third country while it cannot fulfil the commitments signed with the Union.

Italy's ban was made possible after the new government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi decided to use for the first time the mechanism put in place for this purpose by the Commission after the vaccine crisis broke out at the end of January. This export authorisation system requires member states to give their prior approval before EU-produced vaccines can be shipped outside the 27-nation bloc.

During the meeting with journalists, the Commission president also explained: "From the beginning I have supported Italy in its decision because, as we see, AstraZeneca is delivering less than 10 percent of what has been contracted during the first quarter," she said, and insisted on remembering the figure. And she warned that AstraZeneca risks another export blockade if delivery delays persist.

According to the contract published by the Italian public television channel RAI, the cost of the EU purchase from AstraZeneca was equivalent to 870 million euros. By the end of June, the first forecast was to deliver 270 million doses.

Safe for the over-65s

Italy yesterday authorised AstraZeneca's vaccine for the over-65s, after recommending it for the over-55s just over a week ago. The same path has been taken by Greece and Romania, which consider that it is a safe enough vaccine and can help speed up the vaccination of the most vulnerable. Spain, on the other hand, remains entrenched in its position to administer it only to those under 55 despite the calls from doctor associations in Catalonia and most experts in epidemiology to remove these limits