> According to the newspaper, the doses likely come from AstraZeneca's Halix plant in the Netherlands, which hasn't yet been approved for EU production.<p>As of two days ago AstraZeneca hadn't sought approval for the plant [0].<p>[0] <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-uk-idUSKBN2BD0RZ" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-uk-...</a>
So the EU hasn't allowed any of the doses manufactured at the Netherlands plant to be used but the plant was producing doses on schedule with the previously stated goals, and even possibly met the first quarter goals, and now AstraZeneca is somehow in trouble for this?<p>It seems like this should simply motivate the EU review of the Netherlands plant to speed up, so that all these doses can be used as soon as possible if they're safe and effective. What am I misunderstanding here?
Did they really "discover" them or impound them for domestic use? There was another story about Italy disallowing export of AZ vaccines to .au.<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/europe/italy-astrazeneca-doses-australia-intl/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/europe/italy-astrazeneca-dose...</a>
> the doses likely come from AstraZeneca's Halix plant in the Netherlands, which hasn't yet been approved for EU production.<p>Who is responsible for the approval? AFAIK the Brits have no problems with the Halix plant.
From the article and comments in this thread it seems that:<p>- The AstraZeneca didn't sought approval of the Halix plant, approval seems to be a fast process.<p>- They seem to be meant for export.<p>Which makes me wonder if maybe all of the Halix plant production is meant for export (speculation 1) and if maybe they intentionally didn't seek approval of the plant because of reasons like this making all vaccines produced there "not valid for consumption in EU" and (maybe, speculation 2) "not neccessary to be listed when reporting to the EU" and (maybe, speculation 3) "not affected by any export controls because they are not valid vaccines".<p>Be aware that I think speculation 1 is likely but 2 and 3 get increasingly less likely. It can be as simple as saving a buck by avoiding regulative control on a plant which isn't meant to produce for the countries doing the regulation anyway.
The FT and Telegraph are reporting from sources in the EU and UK that these doses were due to be sent to European and developing countries under the COVAX programme.
This article from Dutch newspaper NRC about the missing Halix vaccines and the tensions between the UK and EU is a fun read for more background info:<p><a href="https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/03/24/wie-krijgt-de-vaccins-uit-de-dutch-mystery-factory-a4036989" rel="nofollow">https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/03/24/wie-krijgt-de-vaccins-u...</a>
I have saved up a lot of anger for headlines like this one.<p>I'll give all the incompetent politicians pass, all the knee-jerk lockdown regulations that were badly made, all errors in prioritizing and assigning vaccines, all the games between nations about who got to be first. All pales in insignificance to hoarding vaccine and waiting, instead of putting it into people's arm's ASAP.
I think in years to come, the story of the AstraZeneca vaccine is going to make for some fascinating documentaries. The whole thing has been a series of weird problems from start to finish (starting with AZ being chosen as the partner in the first place, arguably).
There is something weird going on with the AZ vaccine. One of things is that it is being sold at cost price at the moment.<p>AZ has the option of raising the price by this summer.<p>Now they wouldn't, would they, just stock pile the stuff until summer?<p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c474f9e1-8807-4e57-9c79-6f4af145b686" rel="nofollow">https://www.ft.com/content/c474f9e1-8807-4e57-9c79-6f4af145b...</a><p>AstraZeneca vaccine document shows limit of no-profit pledge<p>Company has right under contract to declare pandemic over by July 2021<p>AstraZeneca, which has promised not to profit from its Covid-19 vaccine “during the pandemic”, has the right to declare an end to the pandemic as soon as July 2021, according to an agreement with a manufacturer.
Without inside knowledge the best sense I can make of this is:<p>- EMA has tougher approvals process than others (guessing but seems plausible).<p>- Halix plant meets others (UK) standards but not EMA standards yet.<p>- So AZ hasn't yet applied for approval with EMA yet.<p>- So Halix sourced vaccines can't be used in EU but can be elsewhere.<p>Cue outrage when AZ try to export these vaccines.<p>Obviously doesn't reflect well on someone but without detailed knowledge of standards / approvals process hard to say who.
Political issues are not new in Europe. Having lived in France, I thought the question on the vaccine was due to strict high quality standards in healthcare. But the problems with Oxford/AstraZeneca seems to be a political puzzle (May be I am wrong)
I thought it was wrong for the EU to take such a paranoid view of the way the UK was getting its vaccines. Seems they were on to something after all. At this point it wouldn't surprise me that the UK had secretly siphoned AZ's EU production since day 1. But who knows...