EU regulator authorizes AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The EU drugs agency on Friday approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

The European Medicine Agency (EMA) recommended conditional marketing license to the vaccine developed by the UK-based company and researchers of Oxford University.

The European Commission is expected to give the final approval within hours after the decision.

After the approval of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine in December and Moderna jabs earlier this month, this is the third vaccine that the European regulator has authorized.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is proven to be safe and effective with four trials involving 24,000 people, according to the EMA.

The decision came amid heated disputes between the EU and AstraZeneca over the supply of the vaccine.

The company have been heavily criticized by EU officials since AstraZeneca announced last Friday that it would deliver less vaccine then initially agreed because of “reduced yields at a manufacturing site”.

The company continued to supply its vaccine to Britain that authorized the jab in December.

AstraZeneca argued that it had signed a contract with the UK earlier than that with the EU, and promised to deliver vaccines to the bloc with its “best reasonable efforts.”

Both parties published their contract on Friday to prove their legal interpretation of the term “best reasonable efforts.”

The EU, which has a population of 450 million, signed advanced purchase agreements with six vaccine producers -- Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, CureVac, Johnson & Johnson, and Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline -- to buy about 2.3 billion vaccine doses.

The bloc financially contributed to the research in development of the jabs in order to receive first them first. Following the controversies, the EU decided on Friday to introduce an export control mechanism on vaccines produced in EU countries.

Under the new rules, before giving export authorization for COVID-19 jabs, EU states will have to notify the European Commission whether a pharmaceutical company timely delivered the vaccines within the bloc.

The European Commission’s vaccine strategy suggests EU member states would immunize at least 70% of the adult population by summer.