AstraZeneca chief executive has dismissed suggestions of unfairly prioritizing the UK for Covid-19 vaccine doses, in an extensive interview revealing “problems” that have restricted production.
Pascal Soriot offered the deepest vision to date of a scientific process dragged into the political arena, as leaders in Brussels and various EU capitals expressed their anger that Europe will not get the vaccine so quickly. as expected.
He also talked about the strategy of a “single dose” and the effectiveness of the vaccine against new variants. This is what we learned from Soriot’s comments, given to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Why are EU leaders angry?
The EU ordered 80 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in late March, but the Anglo-Swedish company has said it can only administer doses of 31 million, with deliveries in the next quarter likely to be 50% lower. .
The escalation, ahead of Friday’s decision by the European Medicines Agency on whether the vaccine would be approved, has even given Brussels suggestions that the export of EU doses could be banned. .
On Wednesday, the European Commission said AstraZeneca had withdrawn from talks scheduled for the night, only for the company to deny that minutes later, insisting the summit was still underway.
What does the company say?
AstraZeneca’s contract with the EU is based on the “best effort,” Soriot said, meaning the company is required to produce all the vaccine it can, but is not legally committed to complying with the order in the volumes that the EU wanted.
However, on Wednesday, European leaders said Soriot had misrepresented the contract and insisted the company had signed an “advance purchase agreement” promising it would have enough capacity to deliver the order.
Why have there been delays?
AstraZeneca has suffered production problems in plants that manufacture the vaccine for Europe, especially in a place in Belgium.
“We’re basically two months behind where we wanted to be,” Soriot said.
“The places with the lowest productivity on the net are the places that supply Europe,” he added.
The vaccine is given in two separate phases. The first is the “pharmacological substance”, the vaccine itself, made for European distribution to plants in the Netherlands and Belgium. The second is the “pharmaceutical product”, where the vaccine is taken to plants in Italy and Germany and placed in vials to be distributed in different countries and, ultimately, to clinicians.
The production problem, Soriot said, is with the first phase of “pharmacological substance,” the making of the vaccine itself. AstraZeneca uses large “cell cultures” in batches of up to 2,000 liters. The virus is injected into cell cultures and the cells produce the vaccine.
However, some plants produce a much higher vaccine yield than others, up to three times more.
Why isn’t the UK affected?
It is, or at least it was.
“We’ve also had dental problems like this in the UK supply chain,” Soriot said.
The difference, he said, is that the UK signed his contract for a dose of 100 million long before. As a result, there has been more time to solve production problems, which means vaccine yields are superior.
“So with the UK we had an additional three months to fix all the issues we experienced,” he said.
Why did the UK move faster?
Soriot declined to comment on the EU calendar. But he said that when AstraZeneca began developing the vaccine together with Oxford University, Oxford had already started working with the UK government on plans on how to distribute the vaccine.
AstraZeneca was able to take the Oxford processes and expand them. This advantage is what made it possible to solve production problems in the UK in time for the vaccine launch.
When technical problems persist in European sites, the subsequent signing of the contract means that there has not yet been time to resolve them.
Can doses be diverted from the UK to Europe?
In a word, no.
“The UK agreement was reached in June, three months before the European agreement,” Soriot said.
“As you can imagine, the UK government said the supply that would come out of the UK supply chain would go first to the UK. Basically, it is. “
AstraZeneca’s contract with the EU raises the possibility that part of the vaccine manufactured in the UK can be supplied to the EU, but only once the contract with the UK government has been fulfilled.
That, Soriot said, is “fair enough.”
Is a “single dose” strategy reasonable?
There has been disagreement over whether the UK was right in adopting a strategy to ensure that as many people as possible could get the first dose and wait for a second, rather than administering it in a short time.
Soriot said he couldn’t talk about Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, but said the “single-dose” strategy was “absolutely the right way” for AstraZeneca.
The company believes a dose is 100% effective in stopping serious illness and hospitalization and up to 73% overall. A second dose, he said, would be needed for long-term immunity.
What about the new variants?
Soriot was asked about the first signs that some vaccines are not as effective in new variants. The South African variant has been of particular concern. Soriot noted that the “neutralizing effect” of Moderna’s vaccine has been shown to be six times lower. Tests are still being done on the AstraZeneca vaccine, but he said it was “logical” to expect reduced efficacy.
However, he said existing vaccines could probably still control the virus enough to prevent serious disease, while the company will continue to adapt vaccines to respond to new mutations.