VIENNA/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Austria and Denmark, chafing at the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines within the European Union, have joined forces with Israel to produce second- generation vaccines against mutations of the coronavirus.
The move by the two EU member states comes amid rising anger over delays in ordering, approving and distributing vaccines that have left the 27-member bloc trailing far behind Israel’s world-beating vaccination campaign.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said it was right that the EU procures vaccines for its member states but the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had been too slow to approve them and lambasted pharmaceutical companies’ supply bottlenecks.
“We must therefore prepare for further mutations and should no longer be dependent only on the EU for the production of second-generation vaccines,” the conservative chancellor said in a statement on Tuesday.
Danish Prime Minister Danish Mette Frederiksen was also critical of the EU’s vaccine program.
“I don’t think it can stand alone, because we need to increase capacity. That is why we are now fortunate to start a partnership with Israel,” she told reporters on Monday.
When asked whether Denmark and Austria wanted to take unilateral action in obtaining vaccines, Frederiksen said: “You can call it that.”
The European Commission said member states were free to strike separate deals should they wish to. “It’s not that the strategy unravelled or it goes against the strategy, not at all,” spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker said.
An EMA spokeswoman did not have an immediate comment.
FIRST MOVERS?
Kurz and Frederiksen are due to travel to Israel this week to see Israel’s rapid vaccine roll-out up close.
Israel, which was quick to sign contracts for and to approve vaccines from U.S. drug makers Pfizer and Moderna, has given 94 doses per 100 people and the EU just seven, according to monitoring by Our World in Data.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the campaign a showcase of his bid for re-election on March 23, has spoken of “an international corporation for manufacturing vaccines”.
None of the three countries has significant vaccine making capacity, however, raising questions over how realistic their ambitions are to gain greater self-sufficiency.
A growing number of EU countries have placed side orders for vaccines from Russia and China, even though the EMA has yet to rule on whether they are both safe and effective.
Slovakia said on Monday it had ordered 2 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and expects half to arrive this month to help it end a surge in infections.
The neighbouring Czech Republic – tackling the worst COVID-19 outbreak of any EU country – is also considering ordering Russia’s Sputnik V.
Hungary, meanwhile, has taken delivery of a vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban announcing on Sunday that he had received the shot.
The three vaccines so far cleared for use in the EU, made by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca, rely on production in countries including Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Kurz said Austria and Denmark would work with Israel on vaccine production against mutations of the coronavirus and jointly research treatment options in an alliance called the First Movers Group.
The initiative, which seeks greater protection against future pandemics in addition to joint EU vaccine supply, follows Germany’s decision last month to set up a task force to address supply bottlenecks and boost local manufacturing.
Kurz invited pharmaceutical companies with a local presence including Pfizer, Valneva, Novartis, Polymun and Boehringer Ingelheim on Tuesday to discuss the new initiative.
Pfizer, which declined comment for this story, has said it will make 2 billion doses this year – 70% of them in the EU – and has conducted extensive research into their effectiveness against coronavirus variants.
A spokesman for Boehringer Ingelheim said its focus was not on human vaccines “but if we receive requests we will of course look into them.”
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Robert Muller and Jason Hovet in Prague; Writing by Douglas Busvine and Caroline Copley; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
FRANCE OPPOSES THE MOVES
France has criticised a push by Austria and Denmark to coordinate with Israel on developing new Covid-19 jabs, as EU unity frays even further over its troubled vaccine rollout, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. It says:
The Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced the Israeli partnership on Monday, saying the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was “too slow in approving vaccines” leaving the bloc vulnerable to supply bottlenecks at pharmaceutical companies.
But France’s foreign ministry defended the agency and insisted that “the most effective solution for meeting our vaccination needs must remain within a European framework”.
“This is what guarantees the solidarity among member states that is more essential than ever,” it said on Wednesday.
European officials are under pressure to step up vaccination drives that have lagged behind those of other countries, including Israel and Britain, which approved coronavirus vaccines several weeks before the EMA.
“We should not be solely dependent on the EU any more,” Kurz said ahead of a trip to Israel with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen on Thursday to agree on common production of future vaccines and cooperation on research.
Austria’s neighbours Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic have already bypassed the EMA to approve Russian and Chinese coronavirus vaccines.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian acknowledged “significant” shortcomings in the EU’s vaccination policies on Wednesday, but criticised what he called “attempts at secession”.
European nations should instead pool their resources to increase vaccine production capacity in Europe, “something we are in the process of doing”, the ministry said in its statement.
“The approval process for the European market has also been reviewed, with the introduction of ‘emergency procedures’ for vaccines targeting new variants,” it added.
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US CATHOLICS TOLD TO AVOID jOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—the official group representing the church in the U.S.—urged Catholics Tuesday to avoid taking the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine if other options are available, saying the J&J vaccine “raises questions about the moral permissibility”—even though Johnson & Johnson has stated it did not use fetal tissues in its vaccine.
U.S. Catholics are being told to avoid the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine if other options, like … [+]NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
KEY FACTS
The directive says the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be avoided since it was “developed, tested and is produced with abortion-derived cell lines.”
In a statement to Forbes, Johnson & Johnson said “there is no fetal tissue” in its vaccine, adding the company used an “engineered cell-line system that enables the rapid production of new viral vaccines to combat many of the most dangerous infectious diseases,” though it did not offer further specifics on its process.
Pfizer and Moderna, on the other hand, did not use aborion-derived cell lines in production, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas—chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities—said in a statement.
The J&J vaccine was approved for U.S. use on Saturday, and has been touted as a major step in vaccinating the population since the vaccine only requires one shot, while the other two approved so far both require two doses.
The statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is the most significant opposition the J&J vaccine has coming from an official body of the Catholic church, and follows a well-publicized statement last week from the New Orleans Archdiocese.
The Vatican released a statement in December after questions were raised over vaccine ethics, in which it asserted “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses” in cases where “ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available.”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“If one can choose among equally safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, the vaccine with the least connection to abortion-derived cell lines should be chosen,” Naumann said. “Therefore, if one has the ability to choose a vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines should be chosen over Johnson & Johnson’s.”
CHIEF CRITIC
President Joe Biden, also known for his strong Catholic faith and being only the second-ever Catholic president, praised the vaccine’s approval over the weekend, calling it “exciting news for all Americans.”
KEY BACKGROUND
The Vatican made its statement in December after citing “diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements in the mass media by bishops, Catholic associations, and experts” when it came to vaccine ethics, especially given that there has also been concern around Pfizer and Moderna’s development practices. One week before the Vatican released its statement, the U.S. Conference of Bishops said Pfizer and Moderna vaccines came from a “remote connection to morally compromised cell lines,” while saying a potential vaccine from AstraZeneca was “more morally compromised” when it came to abortion.
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EU countries to approve Russian vaccine – Moscow
We will have a fast-track approach to safely approving future vaccines that work against a variant of Covid-19.
The vaccine programme has clearly been a huge UK success story, and part of the reason that we have been able to develop the vaccines so far so quickly is because of the MHRA’s rigorous yet flexible approach, which has been based entirely on looking as quickly as possible at the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
I’m delighted that they’re taking that same principled approach to the approval process for vaccines that may work against variants.
The MHRA’s chief executive Dr June Raine said there’s no evidence current vaccines are lacking effectiveness against known variants.
Since December last year, we have all been concerned about the appearance of variants – Kent, South Africa, more recently Brazil – and, therefore, we’re well-prepared to look at, when it’s needed, updates to ensure the vaccines being used in citizens are fully effective.
Our goal is to ensure that the vaccine modifications in future that respond to the new variants can be available in the shortest possible time but without compromising in any way on safety, on quality and on effectiveness.
What I would emphasise at the outset is that we don’t have evidence at the moment that the vaccines in use in the UK are significantly lacking in effectiveness but we are now well-prepared.
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