Europe controls exports of coronavirus vaccines, threatening Canadian supply

OTTAWA – Canada-controlled COVID-19 vaccine programs threaten further risks as Europe warns drugmakers that it could impose export controls on doses of European-manufactured vaccines.

The current Canadian vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are made in Europe, which may pose a risk in the delivery of the Canadian vaccine as a whole.

Europe – like Canada – is being shortened by delivery from Pfizer while the company slows production to expand its Belgian plant.

But AstraZeneca has also informed European production cases that the initial delivery of its vaccine, which is expected to allow Europe to use it later this week, will be reduced.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says in a tweet today that the world’s largest trading bloc has established a “vaccine export transparency tool.”

Canada does not currently have the capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly insisted that Canada will receive adequate vaccination doses for all Canadians who need it. request by the end of September.