Last checked at 
By Emilio Parodi and Silvia Aloisi
MILAN, Italy, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Italian police are
investigating the offer of COVID-19 vaccines by unnamed
intermediaries to Veneto regional authorities, indicating a
possible attempt to create a black market parallel to the
national and EU level procurement process, two sources with
knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
Veneto governor Luca Zaia and regional health director
Luciano Flor said this week they were evaluating two offers they
received for a total of 27 million doses of the Pfizer
vaccine, without naming who had approached them.
Flor has said that the two offers were shortlisted from a
total of around 20 proposals the Veneto region had received from
various intermediaries in recent days, including some involving
AstraZeneca's vaccine and Russia's Sputnik one.
The approaches are unusual because the drugmakers that
manufacture the vaccines have struck deals with national
governments and, in the case of the European Union, with the EU
Commission, which has negotiated a procurement programme on
behalf of its members.
The Italian investigation is trying to establish whether a
parallel market had emerged, a source with direct knowledge of
the probe said. The source said it was not clear whether
drugmakers could legally sell their vaccines to non-governmental
entities in Europe.
"The regulatory framework is not clear at all," the source
told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because the
probe is confidential and ongoing.
Andrew Widger, a spokesman for Pfizer, which has produced
its vaccine with German partner BioNTech, said
"currently, we are prioritising our available doses for supply
through established agreements with governments and
supra-government organisations".
"In the European Union, doses are supplied directly to
governments under the terms of the supply agreement with the
European Commission. No Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is available
through intermediaries at this time," he added.
BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca said the British-Swedish
drugmaker has not authorised any shipments of its vaccine
outside of its existing supply deal with the European Union.
There should not be any private-sector supply of the shots for
sale or distribution in Europe, he said.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia's sovereign
wealth fund which is responsible for marketing the Sputnik V
vaccine abroad, did not immediately reply to a request for
comment.
'DISTILLED WATER'
The EU Commission's head, Ursula von der Leyen, said this
week there were increasing cases of fraud and fraud attempts
related to coronavirus vaccines. She said the Commission was
taking action to bring those responsible to justice, adding it
could be extremely risky to take vaccines offered by black
market traders.
Zaia said on Friday he had asked his regional health
director Flor to write to Italy's NAS police, who specialise in
food and drugs fraud investigations, to inform them about the
vaccine offers.
Police visited the headquarters of the Veneto region on
Friday and took documents concerning the case, one of the
sources said.
"I welcome this operation (by the police) because it will
finally bring clarity and it will allow us to understand whether
we are dealing with fraudsters or not," Zaia told reporters.
Veneto has also contacted the national medicine agency AIFA
and Italy's special COVID-19 commissioner, Domenico Arcuri, to
ask them to evaluate whether the offers were legitimate.
"We have not conducted any negotiations on prices or
anything else as we are waiting to see if we can go ahead," Zaia
said. "We don't know if the vaccines are good or bad, if it's
just distilled water. We only did what we were bound to do - we
didn't go to the black market."
A spokesman for Arcuri confirmed the contacts with the
Veneto authorities, while AIFA had no comment.
In a related case, prosecutors in the central region of
Umbria are investigating a man who they say claimed to be a
legitimate trader and tried to sell doses of AstraZeneca
vaccines to regional authorities there.
(Additional reporting by Riccardo Bastianello in Padua, Ludwig
Burger in Frankfurt and Mike Erman in New York
Editing by Frances Kerry)
