EU doesn't renew order for AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine

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Photo AstraZeneca

"We haven't renewed the contract beyond the month of June," Commissioner Thierry Breton told French radio. "Whether we do remains to be seen."

Breton said this did not necessarily mean the end of the European Union's vaccine dealings with the British-Swedish firm. "It's not done. Wait and see," he said.

Breton's remarks came a day after Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had concluded a deal with rival drugmaker BioNTech/Pfizer for up to 1.8 billion extra doses of their Covid-19 vaccine.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. Photo European Parliament

The contract, on top of the 600 million BioNTech/Pfizer doses the commission has already secured, aims to supply the bloc -- population 450 million -- with enough jabs for booster shots, the EU said.

The EU last month launched legal action against the pharmaceutical giant for vaccine delivery shortfalls that hampered efforts to kickstart inoculations across the bloc.

Public confidence in the AstraZeneca jab, meanwhile, has taken a blow over worries of links to very rare blood clots in the brain.

Some member states have restricted use to older people despite the bloc's medicines agency insisting the jab's benefits outweigh the risks.

The commission says AstraZeneca looked set to deliver only a third of the 300 million doses it had promised by June.

Europe's medicines regulator said on Friday it is reviewing reports of a rare nerve-degenerating disorder in people who received the shots, a move that comes after it found the vaccine may have caused very rare blood clotting cases.

While the regulator has maintained that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh any risks, several European countries have limited use to older age groups or suspended use altogether, Reuters reported.

In answer to a question at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the move towards what he sees are more effective vaccines against new variants of COVID-19, calling it "pragmatic".

"We are vaccinating with this vaccine (AstraZeneca) in France and in Europe. We must continue to do this because it will help us get out of the crisis." he said.

"But for future orders, in order to respond in particular to variants, we see that other vaccines are now more effective, so this signals a European pragmatism which I welcome."

The European Union signed a new contract with Pfizer-BioNTech to receive 1.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for 2021-2023, to cover booster shots, donations and reselling of doses, the European Commission said on Friday.

An increase in prices for second generation vaccines could be justified by the extra research required and potential changes to industrial equipment, Breton said.

"There may be a little extra cost but I will let the competent authorities unveil it in due course," he told France Inter radio./.

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