The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, believes that the EU underestimated the problems with the mass production of vaccines in the Union, which should have time to work “in rhythm with scientific developments”.
“We focused on the development of vaccines, but in general we underestimated the problems that arise with mass production. It takes 5-10 years to create a new vaccine, but we did it in 10 months. This is a great scientific victory that should be proud of, in a sense science has outstripped industry”, – said Von der Leyen, speaking in front of MEPs on Wednesday.
According to her, vaccine production is a complex process that requires development.
“The production of a new vaccine is a complex process, it is simply impossible to organize production in a day, moreover, these vaccines include up to 400 components. There are about 100 enterprises involved in the production. Therefore, we have created a team to develop production capacities for the production of vaccines. The goal is to identify problems and help to solve them. The industry must adapt to the rhythm of science”, – said the head of the European Commission.
Currently, vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech (purchase up to 600 million doses), Moderna (160 million doses) and AstraZeneca (up to 400 million doses) are authorized in the EU market. In addition, the EC entered into contracts for the supply of vaccines to the EU with Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-GSK, CureVac. Until now, these developers have not yet submitted applications for the authorization of their drugs on the EU market, but an application from J&J is expected in the near future.
Thus, thanks to the contracts of the European Commission, the EU countries will be able to get access to more than 2.3 billion doses of anti-coronavirus vaccines. The EU expects that by the end of the summer in Europe about 70% of the population will already be vaccinated.
In recent weeks, the EU has faced a number of challenges in the supply of alliance-approved vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca. Delays in deliveries could derail Brussels’ ambitious vaccination plans.