* UK refuses to publish Astra supply details
* Scotland says it will publish vaccine supply data
* EU warns drug companies over supply delays
(Adds UK PM Johnson's spokesman, Scottish health minister)
By Sarah Young and William James
LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Britain is confident it will
receive sufficient COVID-19 vaccine doses to keep its programme
on track despite a dispute between the European Union and
drugmaker AstraZeneca, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman
said on Friday.
EU Commission Head Ursula von der Leyen has demanded that
Astrazeneca deliver contracted vaccine supplies from Britain to
EU states, and has dimissed the notion that the United Kingdom
should have first rights to doses produced there.
The EU has warned drug companies that it would use all legal
means or even block exports unless they agreed to deliver shots
as promised.
The bloc published its contract with AstraZeneca on Friday,
which said the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker should use facilities in
Britain as well as continental Europe in its best efforts to
manufacture its vaccines for the EU.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Friday the
government would not discuss contractual matters. But he said
the government expected contracts to be "facilitated" and he was
confident of its supply.
"AstraZeneca has clearly stated they will be able to provide
2 million vaccine doses a week and we've said we will get that
to people as quickly as possible," he said.
While Britain is running ahead of its European peers on
vaccinations, with almost 7.5 million receiving their first dose
so far, the British COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 100,000,
and is the highest in Europe.
A third national lockdown in England is expected to run
until at least March as ministers try to bring a more contagious
variant of the virus under control. Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland, whose governments decide on their own measures, are
also living under tight restrictions.
AHEAD ON MANUFACTURING
The swiftest mass vaccination drive in history is stoking
tensions across the world as big powers buy up doses in bulk and
poorer nations try to navigate a financial and diplomatic
minefield to collect whatever supplies are left.
The United Kingdom has secured 367 million doses of the
seven most promising vaccines, including 100 million doses of
the AstraZeneca vaccine which was developed by Oxford
University.
Among those procured by Britain include a vaccine developed
by Novavax, which on Thursday said it proved 89%
effective in a UK trial, and Johnson & Johnson, which on Friday
said its shot was between 72% to 66% effective.
Kate Bingham, the former head of Britain's vaccine
taskforce, said the country had been able to secure supplies by
supporting pharmaceutical companies, setting up clinical trials
quickly and helping firms procure equipment to increase
manufacturing.
She declined to comment on the detail of the contract with
AstraZeneca but said the United Kingdom had benefited from early
work to be ready to make vaccines.
"That is ultimately the difference as to why we're so far
ahead on manufacturing," Bingham said, adding that she did not
expect the EU to block vaccine exports to the United Kingdom.
NO LONGER TENABLE
Scotland will publish COVID-19 detailed vaccine supply data
next week even though the British government has refused to do
so.
British prisons minister Lucy Frazer said the government
could not publish supply details for national security reasons,
which she declined to specify.
Scotland's health minister Jeane Freeman said that citing
national security was "not credible" because the British
government had repeatedly briefed statistics to reporters
showing how much vaccine Scotland had been allocated.
"We've held off publication in the past at their request.
But that's no longer tenable," she said at a news conference.
"The public have a right to clarity and we will give them
that. We're not talking about future supplies, we're talking
about known supplies."
(Reporting by Sarah Young, Alistair Smout and William James;
editing by Angus MacSwan)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
