Australia “Already secured 300,000 doses…Can hold up until domestic production starts in earnest”
The Italian government has put a brake on the export of a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus infection (Corona 19) to a third country jointly developed by multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University in the UK.
According to local media such as La Repubblica on the 4th (local time), AstraZeneca recently requested that 250,000 doses (1 dose = 1 dose) of the Corona 19 vaccine, which was finally packaged at its factory in Italy, can be exported to Australia. I made a request to the local government, but it was denied.
The Italian authorities informed the European Commission of the decision on the 26th of last month, and the EU Commission said it did not object to it.
Vaccines that are not allowed for export will be redistributed within the EU, the newspaper said.
This is the first time that the export of the Corona 19 vaccine outside the EU has been banned.
Earlier, at the end of January, the EU introduced a’vaccine export control regulation’ that prohibits exports outside the country if the vaccine supplier does not meet the vaccine supply contracted with the EU.
Due to production disruption, AstraZeneca notified that it would reduce the supply of vaccines to EU member states by 50% compared to the contract volume in the first and second quarters of this year.
Some analysts say that this hard-line measure reflects Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s intention to slow down the pace of vaccination to the public.
Prime Minister Draghi raised his voice at a recent videoconference with EU member states’ leaders to accelerate vaccination in the region while responding decisively to vaccine manufacturers that violate supply contracts.
However, it is also pointed out that this measure, which came out amid the growing voice of equitable vaccine supply around the world, may be criticized for local egoism.
In response, Australian Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said in an interview with a media, “The world is currently on an unprecedented path.
“It’s not surprising that some countries are doing to break existing norms.”
“This shows how well Australia is doing (the quarantine policy) compared to other countries that are desperate.”
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said that it has already secured 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, which is enough to withstand until full-scale production of the vaccine in Australia.
“This vaccine came from one country at a time,” said Hunt. “It is not part of the vaccine supply plan for the next few weeks.”
/yunhap news
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