EU pledges to keep AstraZeneca doses in the bloc for now (updated)
26/03/2021 13:29
(Adds detail, comments on AstraZeneca, quotes)
BARCELONA, March 26 (Reuters) - The European Union will
ensure that coronavirus vaccines produced by AstraZeneca AZN.L
within the bloc stay there until the company returns to
fulfilling its delivery commitments, Internal Market
Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Friday.
The European Union on Wednesday tightened its oversight of
coronavirus vaccine exports, giving it greater scope to block
shipments to countries with higher inoculation rates such as
Britain, or which are not sharing doses they produce.
"Of course, AstraZeneca has been an issue...We had a problem
with this company," Breton said, adding that all other suppliers
were doing well.
"We have the tools and will make sure everything stays in
Europe until the company will come back to its commitments,"
Breton said during a visit at the Barcelona plant of
pharmaceutical company Reig Jofre RJFE.MC which will fill and
bottle Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N coronavirus vaccine from
mid-June. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2LN0TT
Europe should be the world leader in producing coronavirus
vaccines by the end of the year with 52 factories taking part in
the process across the continent, Breton said.
Breton also said Europe should have vaccinated enough people
in the summer, possibly around mid-July, to achieve a "global
immunity" level.
By the end of the year, Europe should have capacity to
produce between two and three billion doses overall, he added.
Production at the Reig Jofre Barcelona plant, which will
handle the final fill-and-finish step in the manufacturing
process, could exceed 100 million doses per day, Spanish
Industry Minister Reyes Maroto told the same news conference.
The arrival of the Johnson & Johnson shot is a welcome boost
to Europe's faltering vaccination campaign.
(Reporting by Joan Faus, Ingrid Melander and Anita Kobylinska;
Writing by Nathan Allen and Ingrid Melander
Editing by Keith Weir)
((n.allen@thomsonreuters.com; +34 617 792 131;))