EU vaccine roll-out in disarray as Germany pushes for export limits

Berlin

GERMANY urged the European Union to limit vaccine exports as a worsening standoff with AstraZeneca Plc and underwhelming inoculation campaigns threaten to prolong recession-inducing lockdowns across the bloc.

An export limitation for vaccines produced in the EU would "make sense," German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Tuesday in an interview on ZDF television. Vaccines leaving the EU "need a licence, so we know at least what's produced in Europe and what leaves Europe, where it goes, and if there's fair distribution," he said.

The comments come after the European Commission on Monday proposed requiring drugmakers to flag exports of coronavirus vaccines in advance. The so-called "transparency mechanism" follows a disclosure by AstraZeneca that planned deliveries of its Covid-19 jab would face delays.

The EU's executive arm says that this would mean significantly fewer deliveries this quarter than what was foreseen in the advance purchase agreement struck between the two sides last summer. The setback follows a production disruption at a Pfizer Inc factory in Belgium.

The news threatens to derail EU's vaccination campaign, which already lags behind the US and the UK in terms of the share of the population immunised so far.

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Britain's vaccine minister warned the EU against engaging in "vaccine nationalism", as he said Britain is confident of hitting a mid-February target to inoculate its most vulnerable citizens despite a row that threatens supplies.

"I have every confidence we will get our deliveries as scheduled," Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday on LBC Radio, responding to the EU's proposal, which could disrupt deliveries of the Pfizer shot. "Vaccine nationalism is the wrong way to go."

Alongside the delivery standoff, AstraZeneca was forced to defend its shot, dismissing a German newspaper report that its vaccine is only effective for 8% of people older than 65.

A report by Handelsblatt late Monday, which cited unidentified sources in Germany's ruling coalition, is "completely incorrect," an AstraZeneca spokesman said. A spokesperson for the University of Oxford, which jointly developed the vaccine, said "there is no basis for the claims." Germany's health ministry also dismissed the report.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the vaccine as early as this week. The UK has already authorised its use. The EU has also fared much worse than many Asian countries in taming the spread of the epidemic. Rather than easing restrictions, countries across the continent are preparing longer and stricter lockdowns.

The commission proposed on Monday further curbs on travel and a reinforcement of stay-at-home measures, just as a series of meetings with AstraZeneca over vaccine-delivery delays failed to diffuse the situation.

A new meeting between the two sides is scheduled on Wednesday, two days before the EU's drugs regulator is expected to approve the company's jab. BLOOMBERG