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  • 10-02-2021 05:20

EU/Presidency: Von der Leyen explains vaccine delivery problems to MEPs


Brussels, Feb. 10, 2021 (Lusa) - The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, goes to the European Parliament on Wednesday to take stock of the European Union (EU) strategy on vaccination against Covid-19 after several controversies with pharmaceutical companies.

The debate takes place in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels at a time of tension between Brussels and the companies, who are unlikely to deliver the doses agreed with the European Commission for these first months of 2021 because they do not have sufficient production capacity for the 27 Member States. This has already led to delays in distribution.

After delays earlier this year in the delivery of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, in use in the EU since last December, AstraZeneca announced at the end of January that it intended to deliver considerably fewer doses of its drug than agreed with Brussels, which got the green light from the European regulator at that time as well.

AstraZeneca's decision, justified based on capacity problems in its production, caused indignation by the EU executive.

For this reason, the European Commission established, also at the end of January, a mechanism for authorising the export of vaccines for Covid-19, to ensure transparency of the process and sufficient doses for EU citizens.

Due to the controversies, the EU executive has already made three advance purchase contracts public with AstraZeneca, CureVac and Sanofi-GSK (whose vaccines have not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency).

In addition to these two vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech, and AstraZeneca), the one from Modern has been approved and is being used in the EU.

The EU now has a portfolio of eight vaccines against Covid-19. In addition to these three include those from Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV and CureVac, for which procurement contracts have been formalised, and those from Novavax and Valneva, for which only exploratory talks have been concluded.

On Thursday, due to the "vaccine availability problem," Portugal announced that the first vaccination phase, which was due to end by 31 March, will be extended to April.

In today's debate, the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU will be represented by the secretary of state for European affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias.

Portugal is chairing the EU presidency of the Council of the EU for the first six months of 2021 when it faces the most serious phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.

ANE/ADB // ADB.

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