The timing matters because that's when AZ could start ramping up production. It's incredibly expensive to build new plants, and they're already doing this with no margin for profit, so they can't just do that in the hope that the EU eventually gets off its arse and decides to buy the vaccine. I mean: the EU still hasn't decided whether to even give the AZ vaccine to the most at risk people.
The timeline:
- The UK paid for research and development of a new vaccine.
- The UK pre-ordered X amount of vaccine.
- AZ began setting up facilities in the UK to manufacture X amount of vaccine
- Three months later, the EU pre-orders Y amount of vaccine.
- AZ begins setting up EU plants to produce Y amount of vaccine. If you check the contract, the EU specifically says that the plants must be built in the EU, and that AZ would need special permission to use UK plants, so of course AZ are not going to reserve extra capacity in the UK for this contract.
- The EU plants suffered problems ramping up production, in large part because the shorter schedule set by the EU.
The provisioning for the EU contract has nothing to do with the prior UK contract.
There's nothing that "stinks" here, only poor planning on behalf of the EU bureaucracy and a sprinkle of bad luck. Had the EU not stipulated that the plants be built in the EU, AZ would have likely been able to provision more capacity more quickly. Had the EU placed their order earlier, there would have been more time for AZ to resolve the issues in the EU plants. Had the EU responded to the drop in production by asking for assistance from the UK, or by attempting to assist AZ, instead of throwing its weight around, I would have a lot more sympathy.
The EU, in its slowness to react, has actively harmed its member nations, and is now looking for a scapegoat (AZ) to blame to avoid the repurcussions.
What you're missing in your time line is that the first AZ vaccines that fulfilled UK orders were produced in Europe, namely in Germany and Netherlands.
So the UK is getting orders from EU, and from the UK, and the EU should sit and watch a company not complying to their duties while the block production capacity is being used to fulfill orders for USA, UK, Isreal, and many other parts of the world...
While the UK and USA have their production capacity only for themselves AND still get production from Europe.
To top that off AZ is failing to fulfill EU orders because they are using EU capacity to deliver to UK?
Basically USA and UK want all production for themselves AND also production from other countries, while everyone else should sit and watch because the concept of "best effort" only applies if it's not failing the UK contract.
So something isn't adding up here, and yes, it fucking stinks. I hope they block all vaccines exports until EU deadlines/stock is replentished.
> What you're missing in your time line is that the first AZ vaccines that fulfilled UK orders were produced in Europe, namely in Germany and Netherlands.
First, that was only the initial vaccines. All vaccines since then were produced entirely within the UK. Second, the UK paid for the development of those vaccines, the EU did not. Without the UK funding and the collaboration with Oxford, AZ was not even planning to develop its own vaccine variant, and so those facilities would not have been producing any vaccine at all.
> While the UK and USA have their production capacity only for themselves AND still get production from Europe.
As mentioned, the UK and USA paid to develop these products. The EU is expecting everyone else to pay the cost of development, and then just get the vaccine at cost when it arrives, and still have priority?
> So something isn't adding up here, and yes, it fucking stinks. I hope they block all vaccines exports until EU deadlines/stock is replentished.
Good luck with that. All the vaccine manufacturers are suffering shortfalls, and the UK is not reliant on exports from the EU. I hope that further vaccine production goes to countries that didn't have the economic means to build their own vaccine supply, rather than those too short-sighted to build one.
>First, that was only the initial vaccines. All vaccines since then were produced entirely within the UK. Second, the UK paid for the development of those vaccines, the EU did not. Without the UK funding and the collaboration with Oxford, AZ was not even planning to develop its own vaccine variant, and so those facilities would not have been producing any vaccine at all.
Well, then why not disclose those figures like EU is asking? If it was only the initial order, how many doses of it? How many are currently be produced?
The EU paid whatever it had to pay to have 80 million doses in February, because that was the deal. Instead they are to receive 30 million, with little to no transparency around why and how many doses are being moved out of Europe.
>As mentioned, the UK and USA paid to develop these products. The EU is expecting everyone else to pay the cost of development, and then just get the vaccine at cost when it arrives, and still have priority?
The EU also upfront money, to the point that AZ established a timeline and a number of vaccines to be delivered - 80 million doses by Feb. Or now some contracts have more value than others? Why doesn't the UK release their contract to the public then?
The reality is that maybe EU should have locked production to EU like UK and USA apparently did. It's all "let's end the pandemic together" but apparently UK and USA want to deal with their problem first and let the rest of the world make vaccines for them.
>Good luck with that. All the vaccine manufacturers are suffering shortfalls, and the UK is not reliant on exports from the EU. I hope that further vaccine production goes to countries that didn't have the economic means to build their own vaccine supply, rather than those too short-sighted to build one.
Well now that the first batches that came from EU are delivered (and god only knows how many, because there's no transparency) it's easy to say that you don't need EU production. Until the UK had no production it was good to receive from EU, now that it has some capacity you don't need it more?
Yeah, really hope EU starts to crackdown on this. Either everyone contributes, or sanctions and restrictions should start to be applied.
> The EU also upfront money, to the point that AZ established a timeline and a number of vaccines to be delivered
There's a big difference between paying for a vaccine to be developed, and paying for a developed vaccine to be manufactured.
The EU only did the latter (and at the bare minimum price...) Other countries did the former.
> The reality is that maybe EU should have locked production to EU
They did, just read the contract. It's not about locking production, it's about paying for development.
As an analogy: let's say you designed a new mobile phone, and you sent those designs off to a chinese company to manufacture. The deal is that after filling your order, the chinese company can continue manufacturing the product and sell it to other potential buyers in china. Is it surprising that your order should be filled before those of the other potential buyers?
The other buyers had the opportunity to come up with their own designs. They could even have split the cost of developing those designs with you. They didn't do either of those things. Now that manufacturing has hit a short-fall, they don't have a leg to stand on.
You're inferring what's pretty explicit in the contract between AZ and EU - there's no mention of anything about being last for not being part in the development process.
You're just making up something to try to justify it, where it says no where that deal.
AZ was the one that said it will sell at price of cost.
AZ was the one that agreed that it would fulfill EU orders from outside EU production.
AZ was the one who agreed that no other contract would compromise EU supply.
If AZ had to take into consideration contract celebration dates, development costs participation, and what ever else you're saying that makes you claim that AZ is entitled to breach the contract - then THEY SHOULD HAVE PLACED THAT IN THE CONTRACT.
Maybe EU would have looked at other alternatives, or made the required adjustments.
AZ has different contracts with different countries and they don't want to disclose that some contracts are being prioritized over others, and putting themselves on the breach of EU contract.
The timeline:
- The UK paid for research and development of a new vaccine.
- The UK pre-ordered X amount of vaccine.
- AZ began setting up facilities in the UK to manufacture X amount of vaccine
- Three months later, the EU pre-orders Y amount of vaccine.
- AZ begins setting up EU plants to produce Y amount of vaccine. If you check the contract, the EU specifically says that the plants must be built in the EU, and that AZ would need special permission to use UK plants, so of course AZ are not going to reserve extra capacity in the UK for this contract.
- The EU plants suffered problems ramping up production, in large part because the shorter schedule set by the EU.
The provisioning for the EU contract has nothing to do with the prior UK contract. There's nothing that "stinks" here, only poor planning on behalf of the EU bureaucracy and a sprinkle of bad luck. Had the EU not stipulated that the plants be built in the EU, AZ would have likely been able to provision more capacity more quickly. Had the EU placed their order earlier, there would have been more time for AZ to resolve the issues in the EU plants. Had the EU responded to the drop in production by asking for assistance from the UK, or by attempting to assist AZ, instead of throwing its weight around, I would have a lot more sympathy.
The EU, in its slowness to react, has actively harmed its member nations, and is now looking for a scapegoat (AZ) to blame to avoid the repurcussions.