AstraZeneca has dismissed as an “erroneous” report in the Italian media that 29m doses of the Covid-19 vaccine found in a factory near Rome were intended to be in the UK.
La Stampa announced on Wednesday that the doses – almost twice what the EU has received so far from AstraZeneca – were found “hidden” in the factory following an investigation by Italian police on Saturday at the request of the European commission, and that they were probably for the UK.
AstraZeneca said that no exports were currently planned except to developing countries through the Covax facility, and that it was not wrong to describe the batches in the factory – run by the company Catalent based in the US to provide vial filling and packaging to AstraZeneca – as a “stock pile”.
“13m doses of vaccine are awaiting quality control to be applied to Covax as part of our commitment to deliver millions of doses to low-income countries, the vaccine has been manufactured outside the EU and to the Anagni plant for filling vials, ”the company said.
She said another 16m doses were awaiting quality control before being shipped to Europe. “Nearly 10m doses will be delivered to EU countries in the last week of March, [and] the balance in April as the doses are agreed for release after quality control. “
A statement from the office of the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, confirmed that the Anagni plant had been inspected at the request of the commission and that the batches found were Belgian.
The newspaper report threatened further suspension between the EU and the UK over vaccine supply ahead of Thursday’s EU summit which will consider a possible ban on vaccine exports from the bloc.
Draghi sparked controversy this month after he blocked 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from being exported from the Anagni plant to Australia in response to the company failing to meet its EU delivery targets.