EU goes on vaccine shopping spree despite ongoing delivery problems

A vial of the Moderna Inc. Covid-19 vaccine

Credit: Yorgos Karahalis /Bloomberg

Brussels has announced two bumper vaccine contracts that will add half a billion extra doses of Covid jabs to its order books, following weeks of criticism after the pan-EU vaccination drive failed to take off.

The European Commission has ordered an extra 300 million doses from Moderna — 150 million of which should be delivered in 2021 — and 200 million from Pfizer-BioNTech. The EU now has around 2.5 billion doses on order.

According to Pfizer, 75 million should arrive in spring but EU officials have admitted that 10 million jabs due in December are yet to be delivered. Production at a site in Germany is expected to ramp up this month to boost manufacturing.

EU countries have struggled to accelerate their inoculation drives, largely due to insufficient vaccine stocks.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was continuing to order more jabs despite the delivery problems because “we want to be able to supply our neighbourhood, in the Balkans, Africa” through the redistribution scheme Covax.

Industry chief Thierry Breton acknowledged the manufacturing issues but insisted that pharma firm AstraZeneca, with which the Commission had a public spat over deliveries, is “drastically increasing their vaccine yields and catching up”.

Under a new strategy, the European Medicines Agency will be allowed to fast track applications for vaccines adapted to new COVID variants. EU governments will be asked if they want this to apply to completely new vaccines as well.

If the Council agrees to shared liability in return for an even faster approval process, similar to the system that allowed the UK to start vaccinating people much earlier than EU countries, Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine could be the first jab to be rushed through.

Hungary already uses Sputnik V after breaking with the EU to authorise it ahead of the bloc and earlier today Croatia’s health minister confirmed that the Balkan country is looking into doing the same. Slovakia may also follow suit.

“It is not illegitimate to seek solutions also outside the EU, especially if there is a delay in deliveries,” Minister Vili Beros said in a radio interview. 

EU health chief Stella Kyriakides said that countries are free to do separate deals for vaccines that the Commission has not already procured, adding that “using Sputnik is their own responsibility.”