BERLIN (AP) – Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to supply an additional 9 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union during the first quarter, the bloc’s executive arm said on Sunday.
The new target of 40 million doses by the end of March is still only half of what the British-Swedish company had originally intended, sparking a dispute between AstraZeneca and the EU last week.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday after a call with seven vaccine manufacturers that AstraZeneca will also start delivering a week ahead of schedule and expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.
“Step forward in vaccines,” tweeted Von der Leyen, who has been under intense pressure on the management of European Commission vaccine orders in recent days.
The EU is far behind Britain and the United States in vaccinating its population of 450 million people against the virus. The slow deployment has been attributed to a number of national problems, as well as the delayed authorization of vaccines compared to other sites and the initial lack of supply.
Last week’s announcement that AstraZeneca would initially supply 31 million doses to the 27 EU member states due to production problems sparked a fierce dispute between the two sides, with officials in Brussels saying they feared that the company treated the blog unfairly compared to other customers, such as the UK.
On Friday, hours after regulators authorized the vaccine in the EU, the commission announced it would tighten rules on COVID-19 vaccine exports, sparking a rabid response from Britain. Since then, the commission has made it clear that the new measure will not trigger controls on shipments of vaccines produced in the 27-country bloc to the small territory that is part of the United Kingdom, bordering EU member Ireland.
Under the post-Brexit agreement, EU products should be able to travel unhindered from the bloc to Northern Ireland.
EU member states praised the bloc’s executive branch last year for signing numerous agreements with vaccine manufacturers, saying joint buying through the combined market share of the entire bloc had ensured a fair distribution for vaccines. 27 countries at good prices.
In a statement, the European Commission said it plans to create a specialized body to improve the bloc’s response to health emergencies and “offer a more structured approach to pandemic preparedness.”
As part of the effort, together with the industry, the EU said it would “fund vaccine design and development and increase manufacturing in the short and medium term, and also target variants of COVID-19”.
“The pandemic highlighted that manufacturing capabilities are a limiting factor,” he said. “It is essential to address these challenges.”