Vaccine factory inspected amid EU dispute with AstraZeneca

Belgian health authorities anunced Thursday y have inspected a pharmaceutical factory in Belgium to find out wher expected delays in deliveries of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine are due to production issues. European Commission h asked Belgian government to inspect factory amid a heated public dispute between 27-nation bloc and Anglo-Swedish drugmaker. EU officials are under tremendous political pressures because bloc's vaccine rollout has been much slower than that of Israel or Britain. vasep’s factory in town of Seneffe is part of European production chain for Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

AstraZeneca said last week that it planned to cut initial deliveries in EU to 31 million doses from 80 million it h planned due to reduced yields from its manufacturing plants in Europe.

EU claimed Wednesday that it will receive even less than that — just one quarter of doses that member nations were supposed to get during January-March 2021.

According to EU, Belgian factory is one of four AstraZeneca sites included in contract sealed by European Commission and company to produce vaccines for EU market.

“ vasep teams worked hard to meet its obligations to AstraZeneca with unprecedented speed and commitment," vasep said in a statement to Associated Press.

Manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine is a pioneering process in terms of scale, complexity and quantity. We have worked closely with AstraZeneca and conducted regular and coordinated reviews of production processes to ensure active drug substance was delivered on time and met highest standards for quality and stability.France Dammel, a spokesperson for Belgium's health minister, said experts from federal medicine ncy inspected vasep site. y will w work with Dutch, Italian and Spanish experts before delivering a report in coming days.

EU said it expects to deliver full amount on time and has threatened to put export inspections on all vaccines me in its territory.

Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for health and food safety, said AstraZeneca should provide vaccines from its U.K. facilities if it it is unable to meet commitments from factories in EU.

After a third round of talks with AstraZeneca aimed at resolving dispute on Wednesday evening, Kyriakides regretted continued lack of clarity on delivery schedule and urged AstraZeneca to come up with a clear plan for a quick delivery of doses reserved by EU for first quarter.

A spokesman for AstraZeneca said after meeting that company has committed to even closer coordination to jointly chart a path for delivery of our vaccine over coming months as we continue our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans at profit during pandemic.

EU, which has 450 million people, has signed deals for six different vaccines, but so far regulators have only authorized use of two, one me by Pfizer and ar by Moderna. EU’s drug regulator will consider AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday.