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COVID-19

EU states seek summit on unfair vaccine handouts as AstraZeneca announce more delays

Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Latvia have called for a EU summit to discuss "huge disparities" in the distribution of vaccines, according to a letter published Saturday.

Published: 13 March 2021 11:12 CET
EU states seek summit on unfair vaccine handouts as AstraZeneca announce more delays
(Photo by JENS SCHLUETER / AFP)

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz suggested Friday that some members of the European Union may have signed “secret contracts” with vaccine companies to receive more doses than they were entitled to as per EU-wide agreements.

Kurz and his four counterparts on Friday sent a letter to Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, president of the European Council, claiming that “deliveries of vaccine doses by pharma companies to individual EU member states are not being implemented on an equal
basis.”

“If this system were to carry on, it would continue creating and exacerbating huge disparities among member states by this summer, whereby some would be able to reach herd immunity in a few weeks while others would lag far behind,” the letter said.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Photo: YVES HERMAN / AFP / POOL

“We therefore call on you… to hold a discussion on this important matter among leaders as soon as possible,” it said.

Kurz on Friday described “bazaars” where some member states made additional agreements with vaccine companies, but an EU spokesman said that it was up to members states to “ask less or more of a given vaccine.”

The Austrian health ministry also dismissed Kurz’s claims, reiterating the EU’s statement that each member state was allowed to say how many doses of the various vaccines it wanted to procure.

“These were very balanced and transparent negotiations,” Ines Stilling, general secretary of the Austrian health ministry, said in an interview with the public broadcaster Saturday.

The European Union has blamed its sluggish vaccine rollout on supply and delivery problems and continues to lag behind the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom in terms of the percentage of the population that has already received at least one dose.

READ ALSO: France will not halt use of AstraZeneca vaccine, says health minister

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced a new shortfall in planned vaccine shipments to the European Union on Saturday, citing production problems and export restrictions.

“AstraZeneca is disappointed to announce a shortfall in planned COVID-19 vaccine shipments to the European Union (EU) despite working tirelessly to accelerate supply,” it said in a statement.

The company had previously warned it was facing shortfalls from its European supply chain due to “lower-than-expected output from the production process.”

It was hoping to compensate for part of the shortfall by sourcing vaccines from its global network, with half of the EU’s supply in the second quarter and 10 million doses in the first quarter due to come from its international supply chain.

READ ALSO: AstraZeneca suspension: Blood-clot risk ‘no higher in vaccinated people’

(Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

“Unfortunately, export restrictions will reduce deliveries in the first quarter, and are likely to affect deliveries in the second quarter,” it added.

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AstraZeneca started delivery of the vaccine to the EU in February, and still aims to deliver 100 million doses in the first half of 2021, of which 30 million are due to be delivered in the first quarter.

The under-fire firm said it was “collaborating with the EU Commission and member states to address the supply challenges.

“It remains confident that productivity in its EU supply chain will continue to improve, to help protect millions of Europeans against the virus.”

READ ALSO: Covid-19: Italy bans batch of AstraZeneca vaccine

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HEALTH

Switzerland tries slow-mo cannabis revolution

Switzerland, which pioneered prescription heroin and safe injection sites decades ago, is now experimenting with decriminalising recreational cannabis, with the drug now available in some Basel pharmacies.

Published: 27 March 2023 17:46 CEST
Switzerland tries slow-mo cannabis revolution

“This is 1,000 times better,” said Paul, a 42-year-old resident of the northern Swiss city, as he picked up a package of cannabis from his local pharmacy.

After buying his drug of choice on the street from “weird people or criminals” for the past 25 years, Paul, who asked that his last name not be published, is taking part in a pilot programme allowing him to acquire it over the counter.

“People are happy, since they for the first time can buy it legally,” pharmacist Lucas Meister told AFP, showing off a stash of colourful packages containing various dried cannabis flowers and hashish-based products.

His is one of nine pharmacies that have been chosen to take part in the two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis.

Thousands of people applied to take part in the trial, but Paul, who mainly uses the drug to treat his depression, was among just 400 chosen.

Not encouraging consumption

Cannabis is legal for medical use in the wealthy Alpine nation, but only in extreme cases, such as pain relief for cancer patients.

Low-potency cannabis can also be purchased legally for non-medical use, but only when it contains below one percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the
component that gets recreational users high.

And while more potent cannabis is illegal, carrying up to 10 grammes of more potent cannabis for one’s own consumption is not punishable by law.

But while there are already a few ways to consume the drug without risking run-ins with police, pressure has been mounting for legalisation.

Paul smokes at home cannabis with a vaporizer during a two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in Basel, on March 7th, 2023.

Paul smokes at home cannabis with a vaporizer during a two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in Basel, on March 7th, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

In 2021, around 70 percent of the population favoured liberalising the laws, up from 58 percent three years earlier, according to the Swiss health ministry.

“We have to get out of the illicit cannabis framework, but ensure strict regulation,” said Barbara Broers, vice president of a federal commission on issues surrounding addiction.

“It is important that people have access to controlled and regulated products, but we are proposing to ban advertising and to have plain packaging, as with cigarettes in some countries,” she told AFP.

“This is not about encouraging consumption.”

Small steps

The Swiss government has opted for a small-steps approach, and authorised trials to take place over the coming decade.

In Basel, participants are aged 18 to 76, and the aim is to study “the effects of regulated cannabis sale… on mental health and on consumption behaviour,” Marc Walter, a psychiatry professor at the University of Basel and head of the study, told AFP.

So far, participants have been especially drawn to “products with a very high level of THC,” he said.

The five-gramme packs that Meister keeps in his pharmacy safe contain products with THC levels ranging from 4.5 to 20 percent.

They are priced at between eight and 12 Swiss francs ($8.70-$13) per gramme, depending on the THC level, in line with black market pricing.

The pricing level was very deliberate, according to Marc Brungger, an executive at the Swiss company Pure Production, which is producing cannabis
for the Basel trial.

“If prices are too low, people would try to resell the product, and if they are too high, they would turn to the black market,” he told AFP.

Other major Swiss cities, including Zurich, Geneva and Lausanne, are planning to launch similar trials.

‘Pure and organic’

In Basel, Paul said he is thrilled to leave street dealers behind and to finally know with certainty what he is getting: “Pure and organic cannabis”, grown in Switzerland and quality-guaranteed by the Swiss authorities.

“I want to consume cannabis, not chemicals made in China,” he told AFP, voicing horror at the arrival on the street of synthetic cannabinoids – laboratory-made molecules that mimic the THC effect.

The marketing specialist said it was a shame Switzerland had not taken a more direct route to legalisation, as in some US states, Canada and Uruguay.

But Walter said he was happy “Switzerland has chosen another route”.

“As a scientist, I prefer that.”

Frank Zobel, head of Addiction Switzerland, agreed, pointing out that taking things slow and steady to see how the population responds was a very Swiss approach.

That model proved itself in the 1990s, he said, noting how Switzerland had slowly introduced prescribing heroin for medical use.

“There too, there were four years of pilot trials, and today it is a treatment that is covered by medical insurance,” he said.

By Agnès PEDRERO

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