Following the discovery of 29 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in an Italian factory, Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune announced that France should soon recover 2 million doses.
Discovery of 29 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in Italian factory
An inspection carried out by Italian customs officials in a bottling plant of the South-British pharmaceutical group near Rome led, last week, to the discovery of 29 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Already subject to criticism for its delay in deliveries to Europe, the laboratory said last Wednesday that these 29 million doses were stored pending a ” Quality Control “.
Among these doses, 16 million are intended for countries of the European Union and 13 million for the Covas device (intended to help low-income countries). A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said “ that no exports are currently planned outside the Covax program countries ” and ” nearly 10 million doses will be delivered to EU countries in the last week of March, the rest in April “.
2 million doses planned for France
During a televised interview given this Sunday, March 28, 2021 on the set of France 2, the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune announced that France would recover 2 million of the doses. What he said about the public service: ” We know that at least half will be destined for the European market. For France, that represents at least 2 million additional doses which will be part of the supplies in the coming days. And this is what allows on the whole a real progressive acceleration of the vaccination campaign.not “.
Strengthening of the export control system
While AstraZeneca had initially committed to distribute 120 million doses to the Twenty-Seven for the first quarter, it had finally indicated that it could only provide 30 million and would have delivered only 19 million doses as of March 24. While this is the only laboratory that does not honor its commitments, the European Commission decided last week to strengthen its export control system to prevent pre-reserved vaccines from being sold to the highest bidder. According to Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn: “ we observe a lack of transparency from AstraZeneca on the number of doses they produce, where and for whom. We consider it of the utmost importance that (the company) puts its cards on the table “.
