Macron: other vaccines more efficient than AZ

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and Europe would continue to use the existing stock of AstraZeneca vaccines, "because it will help us get out of this crisis" but future orders would focus on jabs from other pharmaceutical companies.

"Who could have known last autumn which vaccine would work or not? I think it was a good policy to buy as many vaccines with all the solutions possible, which most other countries and world powers have done," he said, adding that to combat COVID-19 variants, alternative vaccines to AstraZeneca had shown to be more efficient.

His comments, after attending a European conference in Strasbourg, came after the European Union Commission announced its decision to not renew its order for AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

The announcement comes one day after the European Union cemented its support for Pfizer-BioNTech and its novel COVID-19 vaccine technology by agreeing to a massive contract extension for a potential 1.8 billion doses through 2023.

Two weeks ago, the EU launched legal proceedings against AstraZeneca for failing to respect the terms of its contract with the 27-nation bloc.

The AstraZeneca vaccine had been central to Europe's immunization campaign, and a linchpin in the global strategy to get vaccines to poorer countries.

But the slow pace of deliveries has frustrated the Europeans and they have held the company responsible for partly delaying their vaccine rollout.