EU blocks transportation of AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia

Some 250,000 AstraZeneca doses meant for Australia is stopped from leaving Italy under laws prioritising the vaccine’s distribution to EU countries.

Doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are seen at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport. Picture: AFP

The European Union has banned a large shipment of AstraZeneca Oxford vaccines to Australia in a bitter escalation of “vaccine wars” which will delay Australia’s vaccine rollout.

The shipment of 250,000 doses, meant to leave the Anagni plant near Rome on Thursday, was held up by authorities after the Italians had received approval from Brussels to implement vaccine export laws.

These controversial laws are designed to prioritise Europeans receiving vaccines before any non-EU country.

The laws were introduced in late January amid a bitter dispute between Brussels and London over AstraZeneca production delays at a Belgium manufacturing plant.

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Australia was “not vulnerable” because it had so few cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The ministry added that AstraZeneca was also sending a high number of doses to Australia compared to what was being supplied to Italy and the rest of Europe.

Workers unload containers carrying AstraZeneca vaccines from a passenger plane coming from Europe after arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. Picture: AFP

Italy raised concerns about The Australian shipment a week ago. It is understood AstraZeneca feared the shipment was to be blocked on Tuesday, but chief executive Pascal Soriot did not mention the problems in interviews he conducted in Australia yesterday.

The EU, however, has been exposed for its late and low volume order of AstraZeneca vaccines more than four months after the UK, and has been looking at ways to fast track its inoculation programs.

The Australian had flagged future difficulties with the export of coronavirus vaccines to Australia from the continent back on January 29.

The fears back then — that Australia’s 3.8 million international AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine doses, many made in Seneffe, Belgium, had already been cut to 1.2 million and that the European Commission’s moves would slow the rate of delivery of any vaccine exports to Australia — have now eventuated.

Australia failed to obtain an exemption from the European ban despite the diplomatic efforts of foreign minister Marise Payne and health minister Greg Hunt.

However the European Commission provided exemptions to countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine*, Syria, Tunisia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Ukraine, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and the Vatican City.

Doctor Claudia Richartz (right) inoculates a health care worker against COVID-19 with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Senftenberg, Germany overnight. Picture: Getty Images

This week’s blockage of the Australian-bound shipment is the first time the new laws have been acted upon.

Italy refused to sign off the paperwork which would have licensed the quarter of million doses following new Italian prime minister Mario Draghi’s demands for a faster vaccination plan throughout Italy. In the past week Mr Draghi has sacked two key officials and brought in the military to help with logistics.

The Italian manufacturing plant, owned by US company Catalent, is used in the final stages of vaccine production — the fill and finish — and was contracted to handle hundreds of millions of AstraZeneca doses as well as the Johnson and Johnson one dose vaccine in the coming 12 months.

But AstraZeneca officials may now look to divert production outside of Italy, as a consequence of the Italian moves, as it now has no control over its contractual obligations to non-EU countries.

Perhaps coincidentally, the export ban to Australia occurred on the first day that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been given approval to be used in over-65’s in Germany.

The European Union is well behind the pace of the UK in inoculating the public, with some countries four times slower.

In the UK more than 31 million people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and it is attributed to the dramatic decline in coronavirus deaths and cases throughout the country.