European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the delay in delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines was “unacceptable” and that the laboratory’s explanations were “unsatisfactory”.

The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyrikids, on Monday found AstraZeneca’s delay in delivery of vaccines “unacceptable” and proposed a “transparency mechanism” on exports outside the European Union of vaccines produced in its region.

The British group warned on Friday that delivery of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine to Europe would be smaller than expected in the first quarter due to a “drop in yield” at a European manufacturing site. The European regulatory green light for this vaccine is expected for Friday. “This new program is not acceptable to the European Union,” Stella Kyriakides said in a video statement released online.

The commissioner wrote to AstraZeneca last weekend to ask “important and serious” questions about the delay that comes after the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNotech vaccine. “The EU has pre-funded rapid vaccine development and production, and wants a withdrawal”, the official said. Brussels wants to know “what doses were produced by AstraZeneca, in fact, if they were delivered and to whom”. The European Commission has reserved 400 million doses of this vaccine, already in use in the United Kingdom.

“Unsatisfactory” responses

Announcing a new meeting Monday evening between AstraZeneca, 27, and representatives of the commission, Stella Kyrikides said, “The company’s responses are not satisfactory so far.” He said “the European Union wants the ordered and pre-financed amount to be disbursed as soon as possible”, and for “our contract to be fully honored”.

The Commission has proposed to the Member States the “earliest” establishment of a mechanism on the transparency of exports outside the European Union of vaccines produced there. He said that the European Union has supported the development and production of vaccines against Kovid-19 for a total of 2.7 billion euros.

“In the future, all companies that produce vaccines against Kovid-19 in the EU will have to” warn European authorities “when they want to export vaccines to third countries”, the commissioner continued, specifying. Occurred that “humanitarian forces” were not affected. . The European Union “will take all necessary measures to protect its citizens and its rights”, she warned.