EU pressures AstraZeneca to deliver vaccines as promised

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union lashed out Monday at AstraZeneca, accusing the pharmaceutical company of failing to deliver the coronavirus vaccine doses that it promised to the bloc despite getting EU funding to ramp up vaccine production.

The EU, already facing heavy criticism for a slow vaccine rollout around its 27 nations, also warned that within days it will demand approving any COVID-19 vaccines produced within the bloc for export.

“The European Union will take any action required to protect its citizens and its rights," Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said.

The EU, which has 450 million citizens and the economic and political clout of the world's biggest trading bloc, is lagging badly behind countries like Israel and Britain in rolling out coronavirus vaccine shots for its health care workers and most vulnerable people. That's despite having over 400,000 confirmed virus deaths since the pandemic began.

The shortfall of AstraZeneca vaccine, which is expected to get EU medical approval on Friday, combined with hiccups in the delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech shots is putting member states under pressure.

The shortfall is all the more galling since Kyriakides said that the EU had paid 2.7 billion euros ($3.28 billion) to several pharma companies to back the rapid development and ramp up the production potential of several vaccines.

Kyriakides immediately got the support from the bloc's largest member on the vaccine export controls plan.

“We, as the EU, must be able to know whether and what vaccines are being exported from the EU,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said. “Only that way can we understand whether our EU contracts with the producers are being served fairly. An obligation to get approval for vaccine exports on the EU level makes...