Australia asks EU to review blocking of AstraZeneca vaccine shipment

Australia has asked the European Commission to review a decision to block a shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses but Health Minister Greg Hunt says the pace of the nation’s rollout will not be affected.

Instead, Australia will rely on one million AstraZeneca doses every week rolling off production lines in Australia from March 22, when phase 1b of the national COVID-19 vaccination program is set to begin.

The decision to block the international shipment is the first time the European Commission has used its powers over whether vaccines manufactured on the continent by Pfizer and AstraZeneca can leave its territory.

Australia was notified of the decision on Wednesday evening, Mr Hunt said, and the government immediately requested a review. The Health Minister said the government was still waiting on a response.

“It is arguably the most intensely competitive international environment since the Second World War,” Mr Hunt said.

But Australia had a “unique advantage” due to the local production of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine.

“We are very clear that this does not affect the pace of the rollout,” Mr Hunt said. “That shipment had not been factored into our distribution to the states and territories.”

‘Vaccine nationalism’

The export controls – which have been widely criticised as a dangerous example of “vaccine nationalism” – were hurriedly drawn up in January after the drug giants warned supply to Europe over coming months would be slashed because of production delays.

More than 150 international deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Europe were authorised without a hitch over recent weeks, but Italy has now opposed the delivery to Australia. Rome’s objection was endorsed by the European Commission.

Some of the first vials of the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine. The vaccine will start being distributed from March 22.

Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs justified the ban by saying Australia was considered “not vulnerable” at this point in the coronavirus pandemic. It also said AstraZeneca was trying to send a “high number” of doses to Australia compared to the quantity supplied to Italy and other countries on the continent.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said Italy’s decision should be taken in context of the COVID-19 situation elsewhere.

“In the last week, of the 60 cases we’ve had, they’ve all been overseas-acquired cases,” he said.

Italy by comparison had 18,000 cases a day and about 300 deaths.

“So, of course, we’re in an excellent place here in Australia,” Professor Kelly said.

Australia’s “once-in-a-generation” logistical challenge with the vaccine rollout was going well so far, Health Department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said.

“The really, really exciting thing is that in the week beginning 22 March we will start to release the onshore supply of AstraZeneca vaccine – a million doses-plus a week – which gives us the capacity to really ramp up and broadly vaccinate our population as quickly as possible,” he said.

In that week, people in the phase 1b category, including elderly adults, healthcare workers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults over the age of 55, will begin receiving vaccinations.

The Torres Strait will also get a fast-tracked delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines amid concerns about COVID-19 numbers in Papua New Guinea.

Italian block shows importance of local production: PM

Italy’s objection was lodged with the European Commission last Friday, and AstraZeneca was informed on Tuesday this week the shipment would be blocked.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia had always anticipated that problems like this could arise.

“That’s why we’ve done a number of things, the most significant of which is to ensure that we have our own domestically produced vaccine, and we’re one of few countries that have done that,” he said.

“That means that has given us sovereignty over our vaccination program, which I think is incredibly important.”

Almost 4 million doses of AstraZeneca will arrive from overseas, primarily Europe, but 50 million will be manufactured by CSL in Melbourne.

An initial 300,000 doses of the Europe-manufactured Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine landed on Australian soil last Sunday morning, with patients in South Australia receiving the first of those on Friday.

Italy’s decision to block the second shipment was not disclosed by the company’s global chief executive, Pascal Soriot, during a number of interviews he conducted with Australian media outlets on Thursday.

Collateral damage

Australia is thought to be collateral damage in an ongoing war of words between European officials and AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish company. The European Union is unhappy that the company has not delivered the number of doses it expected.

The European Commission declined to comment. AstraZeneca has also been contacted for comment.

The EU has previously described the export controls as a “transparency and authorisation mechanism”. The regulation underpinning the measure states it is not the intention of the EU to “restrict exports any more than absolutely necessary”.

The European Commission has also repeatedly denied the mechanism would represent an “export ban”.

Under the system, Pfizer and AstraZeneca have to ask countries where the vaccine was manufactured for approval before the jabs can be flown abroad.

But the approach has prompted an outcry from a host of experts and officials who believe it represents a dangerous precedent in so-called “vaccine nationalism”.

International Chamber of Commerce Secretary-General John Denton said while he understood the political pressures at play within Europe, “blocking exports to meet domestic vaccination targets is a very dangerous card for policymakers to play”.

“Simply put, using export curbs to get your hands on a few thousand doses of vaccines might yield an immediate political win at home but it comes with a potentially heavy price if European manufacturers find themselves unable to source the inputs needed to sustain – let alone – scale production,” he said.

Mr Hunt felt the full force of state and territory health ministers’ frustrations with the vaccine roll out at a meeting on Thursday evening.

During the heated conference call, ministers voiced their concerns over the lack of timely information they were receiving from their federal counterpart that would allow them to appropriately plan for the weeks ahead.

The states and territories had not received the data on the number of vaccines distributed in aged care facilities within their jurisdictions days after they requested it. The cap on the number of GP clinics approved to administer the vaccine was a point of contention.

With Jenny Noyes

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