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What exactly is happening with AstraZeneca?

hatrickpatrick

The news has been full of stories about AstraZeneca having slashed their initial vaccine deliveries to the EU by 60% and the knock on fallout from that. But what’s either being buried in all the reporting, or simply hasn’t been reported at all, is what exactly happened? What’s the reason for the delay? Technical, logistical, commercial, etc?

I assumed it was similar to what was happening with Pfizer, which is essentially an issue of manufacturing capacity being reduced by an upgrade to their production facility. But what seems odd about the AstraZeneca situation is the anger directed towards them from officials and leaders, plus public statements that “They must honour their delivery commitments”, indicating that this isn’t an act-of-God type mishap in manufacturing, but an act of incompetence and/or willful reneging on the agreement - perhaps their capacity has remained the same but they’ve “bumped” the EU’s order in priority because others are paying more, or something along these lines?

Does anyone know what exactly the situation is? I can’t seem to find anything beyond extremely vague statements at the moment.

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Donald Trump

HalfAndHalf wrote: »

Grabs popcorn, sits back to watch the thread turn into a ‘those bloody Brits it’s all a Brexit stitch up forgetting the company is half owned by a Swedish company’!!

The main connection with Brexit was that Brexit allowed the UK ruling classes to use the workers as guinea pigs for the vaccine roll out

It also allows the UK to jump the queue and outbid the EU countries and potentially start a bidding war for short-term optics.

Danzy

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Tell me what vaccination regime should be applied on approval?

When should the second dose happen?

The regime that follows best medical practice driven by the evidence.

The 2nd dose is ditto.

The EU has been lax on the response, that's hardly contentious.

HalfAndHalf

basill wrote: »

Its a plc. The original Zeneca shareholders who received 53.5% of the shares following the merger with Astra AB weren't necessarily Swedish.

Indian plant would appear to be a separate entity and exclusively for the production of local product called Covishield. Would appear to be a red herring.

Ah a quick Google fact. Thanks. Irrelevant to it being a U.K./Swedish company entirely.

Dressoutlet

Tbh I'm pissed off at the EU telling Ireland we can't have a supply ready for when it's approved. They're taking their time and punishing the UK for brexit (not a fan of brexit myself, I support the EU) but risking the rest of our health's for spite. AZ should tell the EU to go fxxk themselves.

HalfAndHalf

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Tell me what vaccination regime should be applied on approval?

When should the second dose happen?

What’s that got to do with the time it’s taking to sign off on the AZ vaccine. That’s just deflecting!

They’ve all jumped into throwing their weight around yet we’re still 4 days off from them approving the vaccine they’re moaning they won’t get enough of anyway!

Sweet.Science

HalfAndHalf wrote: »

How so? There are precisely zero facts as yet and just because there’s been some very unstatesmanlike rants coming out of Brussels it’s not what you think, it’s what you can prove.

All anyone has been told as yet is that there’s been a fire in an Indian plant and Belgian plant, the latter being the cause of the Pfizer and BioNtech delays.

Surely in the unlikelihood of 2 fires occuring at 2 separate plants at least it would be easy to explain

However they can't provide a reason for the delay

It stinks

basill

HalfAndHalf wrote: »

Grabs popcorn, sits back to watch the thread turn into a ‘those bloody Brits it’s all a Brexit stitch up forgetting the company is half owned by a Swedish company’!!

Its a plc. The original Zeneca shareholders who received 53.5% of the shares following the merger with Astra AB weren't necessarily Swedish.

Indian plant would appear to be a separate entity and exclusively for the production of local product called Covishield. Would appear to be a red herring.

HalfAndHalf

An Ri rua wrote: »

2 fires? One fire is unfortunate...

Original post edited. Fire at Indian plant and production issues at plant in Belgium.

Danzy

Astra Zeneca is one of the few that aren't cashing in on this and are providing it for cost.

Their plant in India is not meeting production targets, due to shortage of a specific ingredient from China.

China presumably using it up for its own vaccine.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Danzy wrote: »

They could pull the finger out and get it approved.

The response has been pretty limp wristed for the last few months.

Tell me what vaccination regime should be applied on approval?

When should the second dose happen?

An Ri rua

HalfAndHalf wrote: »

How so? There are precisely zero facts as yet and just because there’s been some very unstatesmanlike rants coming out of Brussels it’s not what you think, it’s what you can prove.

All anyone has been told as yet is that there’s been a fire in an Indian plant and Belgian plant, the latter being the cause of the Pfizer and BioNtech delays.

2 fires? One fire is unfortunate...

Danzy

Sweet.Science wrote: »

What option does the EU have here ? Other than accepting they have been shafted and wait for the supplies to come ?

They could pull the finger out and get it approved.

The response has been pretty limp wristed for the last few months.

emo72

They sold to the Brits, and their delivery van had broke down. I'm not forgetting about you guvnor, I'll give you a call next week, gotta fly mate, me missus is on the other line.

MrMusician18

Sweet.Science wrote: »

What option does the EU have here ? Other than accepting they have been shafted and wait for the supplies to come ?

Export ban would probably be the most serious consequence.

HalfAndHalf

Sweet.Science wrote: »

Yeah I agree they have opened themselves up for a massive lawsuit

Money in 5 yrs time is pointless now though

How so? There are precisely zero facts as yet and just because there’s been some very unstatesmanlike rants coming out of Brussels it’s not what you think, it’s what you can prove.

All anyone has been told as yet is that there’s been a fire in an Indian plant and production issues at a Belgian plant, the latter being the cause of the Pfizer and BioNtech delays.

drunkmonkey

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Blatantly obvious, non-EU countries have paid above the odds for supply, and AZ have supplied them instead of fulfilling their EU orders.

They might have paid over the odds but it's still cheaper than what Pfizer & Co were offering them, I was listening to one of the girls on the team making it, think she was Irish a few weeks ago, the intention was to get it to the poorer counties first as the others were too expensive.

Sweet.Science

Donald Trump wrote: »

They would still be liable to fulfill existing contracts.

If they did indeed pull a fast one then they shouldn't be let away with it.

Sounds a bit like a dodgy builder tactic where he gets paid up-front for an extension and then picks up other jobs in the meantime as he can because he knows the person who paid up front just has to sit and wait.

Yeah I agree they have opened themselves up for a massive lawsuit

Money in 5 yrs time is pointless now though

HalfAndHalf

Grabs popcorn, sits back to watch the thread turn into a ‘those bloody Brits it’s all a Brexit stitch up forgetting the company is half owned by a Swedish company’!!

Donald Trump

Sweet.Science wrote: »

Doesn't really help on the supply though . May affect future supply if they did sue

They would still be liable to fulfill existing contracts.

If they did indeed pull a fast one then they shouldn't be let away with it.

Sounds a bit like a dodgy builder tactic where he gets paid up-front for an extension and then picks up other jobs in the meantime as he can because he knows the person who paid up front just has to sit and wait.

Russman

Sweet.Science wrote: »

What option does the EU have here ? Other than accepting they have been shafted and wait for the supplies to come ?

True enough, but good luck to AZ getting any other future product onto shelves in the EU. It’s a big market to p1ss off at the expense of one the size of the UK. Europeans have long memories.

Sweet.Science

bennyl10 wrote: »

could easily sue if the conntract is broken

Doesn't really help on the supply though . May affect future supply if they did sue

CIARAN_BOYLE

Sweet.Science wrote: »

What option does the EU have here ? Other than accepting they have been shafted and wait for the supplies to come ?

Depends on the contract.

They may be able to demand financial damages or leave Astra Zenaca the choice of paying damages or importing to the eu from other countries.

bennyl10

Sweet.Science wrote: »

What option does the EU have here ? Other than accepting they have been shafted and wait for the supplies to come ?

could easily sue if the conntract is broken

Sweet.Science

What option does the EU have here ? Other than accepting they have been shafted and wait for the supplies to come ?

[Deleted User]

Does this undersupply fall somewhere in the Brexit context....

Seriously bad grace by the sounds of it.

L1011

They gave the UK stock that was being held for other countries on the assumption that it would be replaced before it was approved in those other countries. This was mentioned at the time they did it.

That is now catching up with them.

NIMAN

Probably right.

At the end of the day, most things like this boil down to money.

Fr_Dougal

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

The European Commission is concerned about where its money went basically.

AstraZeneca were paid €336 million as a downpayment to assist with the R&D and production expansion effort and there's a commitment to order €750m worth of product from them. That isn't small change.

Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety's statement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLIs2tZ7Cp4

As to what's happening. The answer is we don't know, but by the looks of it we'll be finding out shortly. She seems to be absolutely furious and I don't think they would kick off that level of undiplomatic language without there being more to this than a little misunderstanding.

Hopefully that's all it is though, but we'll see. There's a meeting tonight.

Blatantly obvious, non-EU countries have paid above the odds for supply, and AZ have supplied them instead of fulfilling their EU orders.

...Ghost...

My initial thoughts when I heard about the shortage was that AZ were supplying the UK with the batches destined for the EU.

edited to add: https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-astrazeneca-to-cut-covid-19-vaccine-delivery-to-eu-by-60-reports-12195923

Cerveza

China has some involvement too.