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AstraZeneca’s vaccine supply chain includes the Wockhardt pharmaceutical production site in Wales, United Kingdom.
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The US administration announced plans to transfer 4 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to the rest of the world the day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen threatened to use emergency powers to block exports of the vaccine to the rest of the world.
AstraZeneca
-Oxford fired a missile toward Canada and Mexico. On the one hand, there’s free trade and generosity, and on the other, there’s protectionism and “vaccine nationalism,” right?
No, not at all. Vaccine nationalists aren’t where you’d expect them to be, despite mounting tensions caused by huge supply chain challenges in the manufacturing of vaccines. Despite long-standing challenges with its member states’ vaccination efforts, the European Union has sold 41 million doses of vaccines to 33 countries since February 1, according to von der Leyen. The United Kingdom has not exported any. And this week’s decision marked the first time Washington has taken steps to address the issue of managing the massive stockpile of AstraZeneca dosages it has amassed in recent months. “It’s a bizarre world,” a top EU official observed last week, “where those who export vaccinations are accused of protectionism by those who don’t.” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the US had about 7 million “releasable doses” of the vaccine. However, tens of millions more are bottled at plants in the United States. The issue is that the AstraZeneca shot has yet to be approved in the United States, prompting calls from other countries to transfer them abroad while waiting for permission from the government. In any scenario, due to the vaccine’s short shelf life, the possibility of some of the US inventory being exported increases over time. What has become known as “vaccine nationalism” reflects the realities of different countries’ vaccine supply chains. Because of the intricacy of vaccine manufacture, which necessitates the use of hundreds of components to create doses, governments are forced to decisions over which they have little control. Then the only way for them to have an impact is to govern the facilities that operate within their borders.
AstraZeneca
It doesn’t make the vaccine directly, instead relying on contractors all across the world to do it. The United Kingdom government claimed this week that a scarcity of AstraZeneca vaccinations expected next month was caused by delays in delivery from India’s Serum Institute, an allegation that Indian officials quickly refuted. Vaccine nationalism refers to governments’ efforts to reassure their citizens that they are prioritizing their own country’s needs before shipping vaccinations elsewhere. And it’s only addressed in regard to the AstraZeneca shot, which is by far the most popular in the globe, if not the United States. Due to co-developer the University of Oxford’s desire that the vaccine produce no profit, it is also the cheapest. Contracts with other vaccine developers, as von der Leyen pointed out,
Pfizer
–
BioNTech
and
Moderna,
have not caused any complications and are being met. She claimed that only AstraZeneca has “underproduced and delivered.” As production issues dissipate and more vaccines are licensed and used, threats of export restrictions and mutual accusations will fade. However, given the enormous economic and human consequences of further vaccination delays, present tensions can only intensify in the short term.
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