Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has come under fire for treating EU citizens unfairly from EPP MEP Peter Liese, who criticised the company for not being forthcoming with information. [ Ссылка ] Speaking during a press conference on Friday (5 February), the centre-right MEP, who is also the group’s coordinator in the European Parliament’s Environment and Public Health Committee, highlighted that the company’s handling of the situation over the past few weeks has left a lot to be desired.
“This company is not treating EU citizens fairly,” he stressed, adding it is “treating 440 million citizens as second class”.
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“That everybody suffers when there are problems in one production site – is that fair? Is it ethical? Is it acceptable that the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine goes to the UK already for two months now and, when there is a problem, it is only the 440 million citizens in the EU who suffer?” he questioned.
While the MEP, who is also a trained doctor, did not say whether he thought there had been any wrongdoing on the Commission’s part, he said that the Commission has been “much better” at clarifying the situation.
Pointing out that he asked the company several times about the production problem, Liese said that AstraZeneca gave him multiple different explanations and did not properly inform him, which he said was unacceptable.
“I will never say that everything is perfect, but I think the criticism of the Commission is disproportionate and leaves out a lot of facts,” he added.
His comments follow a tumultuous few weeks which saw a clash between the European Commission and the pharmaceutical company after it said that it would fall short of delivering promised vaccines to the EU by March because of production problems in Belgium.
After pressure mounted on the company, it has since committed to increasing its coronavirus vaccine deliveries to the EU by 30%.
Defending the European Commission’s decision to put in place a transparency and authorisation mechanism for exports of COVID-19 vaccines, Liese said that events of the past few weeks justified the use of such a mechanism.
“We don’t want to make anyone’s life difficult, but we want the vaccines for Europeans,” he said, adding that the EU was the most cooperative in this field.
“It cannot be that those who are open and cooperating get problems, while the others get to vaccinate their people,” he said.
The MEP adding a warning that the company must now “continue to work hard so that its reputation in the EU and worldwide does not suffer more”.
“Pressure must continue to be put on AstraZeneca,” he said, adding that whether the production problem was accidental or due to an oversight remains an “open question”.
Belgian plant denies blame for AstraZeneca vaccine cuts to EU
A plant in Belgium said to be the main cause of big cuts in AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine supplies to the European Union said on Wednesday it had complied with all its obligations under a contract it has with the Anglo-Swedish firm.
The apparent dispute could lead to further EU pressure on AstraZeneca to deliver more doses in the winter, as its COVID-19 vaccine began being rolled out in the 27-nation bloc this week.
The factory, which U.S. firm Thermo Fisher acquired from Novasep in January, has been identified as the cause of the cuts by AstraZeneca in internal meetings, several EU officials have said.
"We have complied with all the contractual requirements we have with AstraZeneca," Thermo Fisher's vice president for the EU, Cedric Volanti, told a news conference on Wednesday, when asked about possible production problems the plant had faced.
AstraZeneca on Jan. 15 announced cuts in its supply of vaccines to the EU in the first quarter, which EU officials said amounted to a 60% reduction to 31 million doses through March.
EU officials repeatedly said AstraZeneca had told them that the problem had been caused by production issues at the factory in Belgium.
Volanti declined to comment on the number of doses the company has committed to producing for AstraZeneca and underscored that the change of ownership had had no negative impact on the production capacity of the factory.
When asked whether the Belgian plant, located in Seneffe at an hour drive from Brussels, sold doses to Britain, Volanti said the company sends vaccines to an Italian facility that bottles them before delivering to clients.
EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton, who leads an EU task force to expand COVID-19 vaccine production, said he was confident about the production capacity of the Thermo Fisher plant.
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