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* Italy, EU blocked shipment of AstraZeneca shots to
Australia
* Move meant to sanction AstraZeneca for delays in EU
supplies
* Millions of EU-made vaccines exported to dozens of
countries
* Australia sees no impact on its rollout
(Adds EU Commission comment)
By Colin Packham, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Sabine Siebold
CANBERRA/TOKYO/BRUSSELS, March 5 (Reuters) - Australia has
asked the European Commission to review its decision to block a
shipment of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, as countries
importing EU-made shots fear a potential impact on supplies.
The EU executive backed Italy's decision to block a shipment
of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia,
European officials said, in the first refusal of an export
request since a mechanism to monitor vaccine flows was
established in late January.
The move was a reaction to AstraZeneca's delays in
delivering vaccines to the EU. The company has said it can
supply only about 40 million doses by the end of this month
compared to 90 million foreseen in its contract.
One official said the Anglo-Swedish firm had initially asked
Rome to ship even more doses to Australia, but then cut its
request to 250,000 after a first refusal by Italy, where some of
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines are bottled.
"Australia has raised the issue with the European Commission
through multiple channels, and in particular we have asked the
European Commission to review this decision," Australian Health
Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Friday
that the EU executive had received no specific request from
Australia's health minister on the vaccine block.
Hunt said Australia, which began its inoculation programme
two weeks ago, had already received 300,000 doses of
AstraZeneca's vaccine, which would last until local production
of the vaccine ramps up. He added the missing doses would not
affect the rollout of Australia's inoculation programme.
When asked about the EU's export ban, Japan vaccine minister
Taro Kono said: "We are asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
to thoroughly investigate. We want to work with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to secure the vaccines bound for Japan."
AstraZeneca did not reply to a request for comment.
EXPORT CONTROLS
Apart from the decision to block the shipment to Australia,
the EU has authorised all requests for export since the scheme's
Jan. 30 debut to March 1, which amounted to 174 requests for
millions of shots to 29 countries, including Australia, Japan,
Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Canada, an EU Commission
spokeswoman said.
Almost all vaccines exported from the EU since the end of
January are made by Pfizer and BioNTech, the
head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said last
week, with much smaller amounts being exported by Moderna
and AstraZeneca.
The EU set up the mechanism to monitor vaccine exports after
drugmakers announced delays in their supplies to the 27-nation
bloc. It is now planning to extend the scheme until the end of
June after it expires on March 31, EU officials told Reuters.
When asked about Italy's move, French Health Minister
Olivier Veran said that Paris could do the same, although at the
moment it produces no COVID-19 vaccines.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that drug
manufacturers must honour vaccine supply contracts to Europe,
but said Germany had not yet had any reason to stop shipments of
shots produced domestically to other countries.
While seeking the European Commission's intervention,
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he could
understand reasons for Italy's objection.
"In Italy people are dying at the rate of 300 a day. And so
I can certainly understand the high level of anxiety that would
exist in Italy and in many countries across Europe," Morrison
told reporters in Sydney.
Italy's move came just days after Prime Minister Mario
Draghi, who took office last month, told fellow EU leaders that
the bloc needed to speed up vaccinations and crack down on
pharma companies that failed to deliver on promised supplies.
EU countries started inoculations at the end of December,
but are moving at a far slower pace than other rich nations,
including former member Britain and the United States. Officials
blame the slow progress in part on supply problems with
manufacturers.
(Reporting by Colin Packham in Canberra, Rocky Swift and
Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Sabine Siebold in Brussels; writing
by Colin Packham and Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Jane
Wardell, Kenneth Maxwell and Nick Macfie)
