ROME-BRUSSELS. Non a European “V-Day”, but three. Between 27 and 29 December, once the green light has been obtained from the Community drug control authority (EMA), all EU countries will start vaccination campaigns. Those who are not yet ready will symbolically do so while waiting to resume in January, others will start a mass administration at least for the categories at risk. Yes, because once the announcement effect is over, the real fear of European institutions is to run out of water as soon as the purchased doses of the only vaccine already in circulation, the German-American one from Pfizer and BioNTech, are finished. The Medicines Agency has decided to bring the green light to the other product made in the USA, that of Moderna, up to 6 January. However, it will not be enough: for this reason the European Commission is running for cover with the increase in Pfizer purchases and new contracts.
*** Subscribe to the Covid Newsletter
The cause of concern is the delays in the most relied on vaccines, those developed in Europe by Astra Zeneca and Sanofi. The Union has booked 300 million doses of the former, with an option for an additional 100 million. Sanofi was also expected to deliver 300 mil quicklyions of vials to the Twenty-seven, but the times for authorization are far away. The Commission thus signed a new contract with Novavax for 100 million doses (plus an option for the same number), but above all it communicated to Pfizer / BioNTech its intention to use the option already signed for a further 100 million doses. Of these, 13.5 million are destined for Italy.
A few numbers can help you understand the consequences of delays on us. Out of a total of 202 million doses planned in 2021, we should have received about forty million vials from Astra Zeneca alone in the first six months of the year. An error in the experimentation is lengthening the time, and it is not clear when it will be ready for the yes of the EMA. Well-informed sources who ask not to be mentioned explain not to be under any illusions: the aired hypothesis of authorizing the vaccine only for the under 55s (the “safe” part of the experiment) is unlikely. The vaccine is either licensed for everyone, or it isn’t. In the mirroror at the disposal of the Ministry of Health, Sanofi should guarantee another forty million doses in the third and fourth quarter 2021. On the French vaccine yesterday the Covid emergency commissioner Domenico Arcuri put his hands on: the vials that should have been guaranteed in the second part of 2021 will arrive only “in the second and third quarter of 2022”. At this point it is to be hoped that everything will go well with the last phase of the Johnson and Johnson trial: on paper it promises 14 million doses between April and June, another 32 million between July and September. It is no coincidence that Arcuri pointed out that doctors, nurses and the elderly are at the top of the list of people to be vaccinated, not school staff. The priority scale will be age.
Faced with all this, it was inevitable that the Commission’s management of (secret) contracts with pharmaceutical companies would end up in the crosshairs of the European Parliament. A detail that emerged in the last few hours is fueling the controversy: according to an internal document obtained by Reuters, in July the EU executive rejected Pfizer / BioNTech’s offer for the sale of 500 million doses. The Brussels negotiators had judged the contract too onerous (15.5 euros per vial), thus also focusing on cheaper products. On balance, a not far-sighted choice.
–
