Through the Joint Procurement Agreement launched in June 2020, the EU has priority to deliver vaccines, which are distributed to member states on a pro-rata basis. The European Commission is in charge of negotiations and to date has concluded advance purchase agreements with six vaccine developers.

Under the agreement, the EU covers part of the producers’ vaccine development costs in return for the right to buy a specified amount of vaccine doses in a given timeframe and at a set price, once granted conditional marketing authorization. Two vaccines, made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, already are on the market. The candidate of AstraZeneca/Oxford isexpected to be next.

During the plenary session, several MEPs acknowledged that the joint purchase agreement had led to a stronger negotiation position than member states would have had alone.  Some cautioned against “health nationalism," which they said could damage cooperation on vaccines across Europe, as well as the danger of poorer countries coming up short.

Members of the health committee highlighted the need for public trust in vaccines and the importance of fighting disinformation, asking for increased transparency from the Commission regarding vaccine contracts, authorization and deployment. A member of the Left caucus cautioned that “no profit needs to be made on this pandemic and we certainly do not want segregation at vaccinations.”

Some  speakers expressed concern about the EU’s slowness in administering shots and the unexpected shortfall caused by Pfizer’s revamp of a Belgian production facility that will at one point increase supply to Europe but reduce availability in the interim.

One MEP questioned the Commission’s perceived lack of an overarching strategy and called for a “systematic update of treatment strategies and appropriate information campaigns that reach out to everyone.” 

Transparency along the supply chain was a concern of parliamentarians from all political factions. “We are now in the distribution phase and we discover that there are shortages and broken promises from the pharmaceutical companies,” a member of the health committee remarked. Who is liable for potential negative side effects, Brussels or drugmakers, several wanted to know.

European Commission representatives attending the session sought to assure MEPs that their calls for transparency were being heeded.  Among other things, a reading room is open for those wishing to review vaccine contracts, said health commissioner Stella Kyriakides. To date, she said, partly state-owned German biotech CureVac – which has not yet filed for a marketing authorization – is the only company to have  made its contract available, but others are being urged to do the same.

Speaking for the European Council, Ana Paula Zacarias, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, told MEPs that a number of issues still need to be resolved. These include the format and role of a future vaccination certificate, a common approach on the use and validation of antigen rapid tests and the mutual recognition of Covid-19 test results by all member states, she said.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist