AstraZeneca to supply nine million more vaccines to EU

The diplomatic row that broke out last week over the supply of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to Europe appears to have cooled after the UK pharma agreed to supply an extra nine million doses.

At the end of last week, the European Commission was forced into an embarrassing U-Turn when it tried to impose restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines exported from the bloc.

The move would have seen the Commission unilaterally suspend part of the Brexit deal covering Northern Ireland.

After the Commission back-tracked on the move because of the political fall-out, AstraZeneca agreed to supply an extra nine million shots to the EU in the first quarter, compared with a schedule outlined last week.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that AZ had agreed to another nine million doses, bringing the total delivered in that period to 40 million doses.

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1355942468001411072

The move gets both von der Leyen and AZ off the hook for the time being.

On the part of AZ it shows a willingness to rectify the manufacturing problems that have slowed production in Europe.

For von der Leyen it could lessen the political pressure she faces because of the slow roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations across Europe.

In a separate development, the UK government has exercised an option for 40 million doses of another potential coronavirus vaccine from Valneva.

This brings the total ordered by the UK government from Valneva to 100 million doses and the UK government retains options for a further 90 million doses for supply between 2023 and 2025.

Valneva’s vaccine is based on inactivated whole-virus particles of SARS-CoV-2 and read-out of a fully recruited phase 1/2 study is expected within the next three months.

Valneva announced its partnership with the UK government in September 2020 and said in mid-January that it is in advanced discussions with the European Commission, regarding supply of up to 60 million doses.

Commercial production has already begun in Scotland, according to Valneva CEO Thomas Lingelbach, who said the vaccine could make “a major contribution to the UK’s vaccinations efforts later this year”.

Valneva could end up being the largest COVID vaccine supplier to the UK if the vaccine is approved – its next largest order is with AZ (100 million doses), with separate orders of 60 million doses with GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi and Novavax.

It also has 40 million doses of BioNTech/Pfizer’s vaccine, plus 17 million doses of Moderna’s shot and an order of 30 million doses of Janssen’s vaccine.

Feature image courtesy of Rocky Mountain Laboratories/NIH