BioNTech calls out EU over failing to order enough COVID-19 vaccines

German pharmaceutical firm BioNTech on January 1 criticized the European Union's “gap” due to a lack of enough Pfizer vaccine purchases manufactured by its US partner. BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly that the situation was grim, as there was a shortfall of multiple vaccines which created a gap. There’s an absence of other approved vials and this gap needs to be filled with Pfizer vaccines, the CEO told the newspaper. His remarks came as Europe's vaccine rollout lagged behind in numbers to inoculate the entire population. As a result of which, the European regulators came under pressure from countries calling on the EU to approve the vaccine as soon as possible. EMA had set December 29 as the date to start the vaccination. 

EU is falling behind as Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines were approved by the UK, Canada, and the US, earlier last month. The UK, meanwhile, fast-tracked the emergency authorization of the Moderna and Oxford co-developed AstraZeneca vaccine. However, the EU only managed to order nearly 300 million doses for its 27-nation bloc, with Germany only recently starting to vaccinate the elderly population in care homes. Germany's health minister Jens Spahn described the first batches of vaccines as "the key to getting lives back". Germany defended the late procurement, citing the EU-wide regulatory approval. "Some people will say tomorrow: 'too little, too late, too European,” he told AP.  Meanwhile, France announced that it will vaccinate the health workers aged over 50 from January 4 onwards, adding that it was much sooner than initially intended. Overall, not enough vaccines were ordered to inoculate Europe's 450 million population. 

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Procured vaccines in November

The EU had signed the contract to procure the vaccines only in November, much later than the other countries. BioNTech founder Ozlem Tureci told Spiegel that the EU had assumed that there will be ‘different suppliers’ and more options to choose from the vaccines amid the global race to develop a jab to end the pandemic. However, it, later on, became clear that many of those suppliers were unable to deliver quickly. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz “called the Pfizer a game-changer” as the country prepared to inoculate the vulnerable population. Meanwhile, Italy's first doses were administered at Spallanzani, as the virus death toll hit nearly 72,000. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on the other hand, took to her Twitter handle calling the vaccination in EU a ‘touching moment of unity’, all the while adding that the Pfizer vaccines were delivered to all 27 member states. 

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