EU/UK COVID-19 vaccines spat turns to outright war

30 January 2021

Last week saw the UK’s AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) tell the European Commission that, due to glitches at its production facilities in Europe, it would be unable fully meet its supply commitment on its COVID-19 vaccine (AZD1222), which at that point had not been cleared for use by the European Medicines Agency.

Later, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyon demanded that the company must abide by its contractual obligations, calling for diversion of the vaccine from AstraZeneca’s facilities in the UK, where the product has been instrumental, along with BNT612.b2, in the fastest European rollout by far of vaccination.

However, by Friday the spat took a turn for the worse, with the EC announcing measures that would let EU member states ban the export of vaccines to most countries outside of the European Union, including the UK. Friday also heard that use of the AstraZeneca vaccine has gained European Medicines Agency backing.

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