EU extends COVID vaccine export transparency system

The European Commission announced on Thursday that it is extending until the end of June its transparency and authorisation mechanisms for exports of vaccines for COVID-19.

The tool is aimed at ensuring that vaccines produced within the EU are not exported if the manufacturer fails to meet its commitment of vaccine deliveries to EU member states.

"The Commission has today extended until the end of June the transparency and authorisation mechanisms for exports of vaccines for COVID-19. This export authorisation mechanism continues to apply only for companies with whom the European Union has an advanced purchase agreement. This advance purchased agreement commit the vaccine producers to deliver to EU member states a pre-agreed number of vaccines" said European Commission spokeswoman Miriam Garcia Ferrer.

The EU instituted the special export transparency system late in January to make sure companies with delivery commitments to the EU would not ship them elsewhere.

The European Commission also said that it is not at the moment planning to review its recommendation for the use of AstraZeneca vaccine as some EU countries are protectively suspending their usage.

"We follow the science which mean in this case that we follow the advice and the opinion of the European Medicine Agency. The European Medicine Agency is following closely, of course, the use of the vaccines in the different member states," said European Commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency gave the green light to Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine, handing the European Union's 27 nations a fourth vaccine to try to speed up the bloc's much-criticized vaccination rollout.

The EMA has already recommended COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca  - but all of those vaccines require two doses, several weeks apart. Production delays have also plagued all three vaccine manufacturers.

The bloc has contract commitments with six companies for 2.6 billion doses for a population of 450 million, and has openly clashed with one - AstraZeneca - after the company said its first-quarter promises of 80 million doses would in reality amount to less than half as many due to what it called technical issues.