BERLIN, March 12, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday
that Germany would have to wait until “mid-to-late April” for the newly
approved Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, adding that the EU is
querying the company over the delays.
Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine on Thursday became the
fourth jab to be authorised for use in the European Union.
Yet Spahn warned that Germany would have to wait at least another month to
receive the first doses from the US firm, as Berlin cited production issues
and US reluctance to export vaccines.
“It’s a pain with Johnson & Johnson. We have a European authorisation, but
the deliveries will only be there from mid-to-late April at the earliest,”
said the minister at a weekly press conference in Berlin.
He added that the European Commission was in talks with the company over
the problem.
“We made an advance payment of 300 million euros for production and signed
a contract in October, so we of course have to ask what has happened,” he
said.
He said that Germany and the EU were now working on “short-term solutions”
to the problem such as setting up production facilities in Germany.
While Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine production actually begins in Europe,
the doses are subsequently sent to the US for the so-called “fill and finish”
process of bottling and packaging.
Speaking about the issue later Friday, Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen
Seibert raised US reluctance to export doses as another problem for Europe’s
supply.
While European-produced vaccines were benefitting countries around the
world, other countries like the US and UK were exporting “almost nothing”, he
said.
“This is also something that the European Commission will discuss… with
the companies and the governments of other countries,” he added.
– ‘Volatile’ –
The EU has been struggling with a disappointing vaccination rollout that
started in January and faltered because of a shortage of doses produced by
the three suppliers so far.
On Friday, Spahn said that while Germany expected to receive nine million
doses from Pfizer/BioNTech in April, other producers had been less reliable.
“With AstraZeneca and Moderna, the planning periods and the question of
whether there will be adjustments is a little more volatile, which has to do
with production processes,” he said.
“It all depends on whether and to what extent producers are able to keep
to their delivery commitments.”
Problems with supplies have contributed to a stuttering inoculation
rollout that has left EU nations trailing behind the likes of the United
States, Britain and Israel.
Nevertheless, the head of the EU’s vaccine supply task force, Thierry
Breton, said on Tuesday that the EU’s “bumpy” vaccine strategy should be
augmented by the addition of the Johnson & Johnson jab, despite reports of
production shortfalls in the US.
“Do not believe that because one company has a problem that overall it
will jeopardise the whole programme,” he said.