AstraZeneca

The European Union and drugmaker AstraZeneca sparred Wednesday over a delay in coronavirus vaccine deliveries amid a deepening dispute that raises concerns about international competition for limited supplies of the shots needed to end the pandemic.

EU demands that AstraZeneca make up delays of its COVID-19 vaccine by supplying doses from its U.K. factories on Jan. 27 risked setting the bloc and Britain on a post-Brexit collision course.

Greek Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias expressed concern on Wednesday over the delays in the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical companies, as a dispute between the European Union and drugmaker AstraZeneca over problems in the delivery of its new jab deepened.

AstraZeneca refused to meet with the EU Commissioner for Health

The European Union is asking AstraZeneca to publish the contract it signed with the bloc on Covid-19 vaccine supplies, an EU official said on Wednesday, in an escalation of the row over delivery delays.

The company pulled out of a meeting with the European Union scheduled for Wednesday, the official said.

According to previous data, the EU managed to administer about 8.9 million doses, or two doses per 100 inhabitants. The United States and Great Britain have so far vaccinated seven, that is to say, 10.5 inhabitants per 100, respectively, and Israel is currently at 43.

European Union called for tight controls on coronavirus vaccine exports after top officials  accused U.K.-based AstraZeneca of cutting supplies intended for EU countries in order to sell doses to other nations at higher prices.

Reports in German media outlets that the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is less effective in older people appear to be unfounded, the German government said Tuesday.

Sanofi will fill and pack millions of doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine from July in an effort to help meet the huge demand for the US drugmaker's shots.

The French company will aim to help supply more than 100 million doses of the vaccine this year from its German plant in Frankfurt, CEO Paul Hudson told Le Figaro newspaper on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca has offered to bring forward some deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union while the bloc has asked the British drugmaker if it can divert doses from the UK to make up for a shortfall in supplies, European officials told Reuters.