In case of defaults, penalties are not triggered automatically. This chasm in the contract concluded with the European Union – revealed on Monday by Corriere della Sera – explains why Pfizer can afford today not to respect the agreed deliveries of anti-Covid vaccines. The agreement did not protect European citizens enough and therefore the pharmaceutical company's shortcomings are difficult to challenge legally. The delay on vaccines and the defaults in the deliveries of Pfizer-BioNtech and Astra Zeneca have arrived on the table of the EU Council while the European commissioners for Justice and Home Affairs are proposing the introduction of travel restrictions within Europe.
But Italy has decided to proceed in any case and in the formal notice for non-fulfilment, which could also start today, it also disputes the fact that BionTech, the German company associated with Pfizer in the production of the vaccine, has signed a parallel contract with Germany for the supply of another 30 million doses. An agreement parallel to the Community one which obviously affects the fairness of the distribution of vaccines.
After the warning, there are two possibilities. The first is the criminal case before the Rome prosecutor's office to "verify the truthfulness that the supplies were destined for other countries", a hypothesis repeatedly denied by the company. The second is to ask the EU to “evaluate the launch of a dispute before the Brussels Bar in the interest of Italy, as a Member State".
The most serious consequence is that the cuts announced by Pfizer involve "prejudices for the correct continuation of the vaccination campaign, set up on the basis of formal planning" announced by the pharmaceutical company, as stated in the draft of the notice. It is yesterday's confirmation that vaccinations for the over-80s will have to be postponed compared to the original schedule.
According to the Deputy Minister of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, for this category the campaign "will only intensify at the end of February and for the first recalls it will be necessary to wait for mid-March". In general, therefore, “the dose reductions communicated by Pfizer and AstraZeneca will do postpone the time foreseen for the vaccination of the over 4s by about 80 weeks and by about 6-8 weeks for the rest of the population".
THE PFIZER VERSION
“Starting next week, Pfizer's supply of the vaccine will be fully operational again”. The American company contacted by Sky TG24 reiterated it again. Pfizer also specified that “from 8 to 18 January the vials envisaged in the order plan were sent, then there was a reduction due to the readjustment of the Belgian production site in Puurs. With the government's decision to administer 6 doses instead of 5, Pfizer has reduced the number of vials, but not the expected doses, which remains the same. What is happening is the result of a misunderstanding in the counting of doses which is not the counting of vials ”.
VACCINES ON THE EU COUNCIL TABLE
“We count on constant and active monitoring also by the Commission”. So the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, speaking at the EU Council.
“We will not change the goals” of vaccination coverage of 80% of the vulnerable population and medical personnel by March and 70% of the population by the summer. He said it ithe spokesperson of the EU Commission, Eric Mamer, answering journalists' questions about the delays announced by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. "If every time a problem emerges we change our objective, we lose predictability and clarity for all the parties involved in this process", Mamer underlined, adding that "the objectives" set by the EU "are ambitious" and Brussels intends “find solutions to the problems” that emerged.
The EU expects AstraZeneca "to explore all the flexibility in terms of production capacity, to honor the commitments and deliver the required vaccine doses as soon as possible", specified the spokesman Eric Mamer about the phone call between the president of the EU executive Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of AstraZeneca Pascal Claude Roland Soriot. On the possibility that, to overcome production capacity problems, vaccines can be produced in plants of other companies, "it is the policy of the companies - replied Mamer - in the sense that it is up to them to decide whether to do it or not"
