{"id":4351,"date":"2021-01-15T18:59:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T17:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&#038;p=4351"},"modified":"2021-01-15T19:01:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T18:01:20","slug":"vaccin-tal-covid-19-mpe-jitolbu-iktar-trasparenza","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/vaccin-tal-covid-19-mpe-jitolbu-iktar-trasparenza\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 vaccines: MEPs call for more clarity and transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"597\" src=\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/iStock-1288583851-1024x597.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4352\" srcset=\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/iStock-1288583851-1024x597.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/iStock-1288583851-300x175.jpg 300w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/iStock-1288583851-768x448.jpg 768w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/iStock-1288583851-1536x896.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/iStock-1288583851-2048x1195.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Members of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety quizzed Sandra Gallina, the EU\u2019s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccine contracts, on the latest developments regarding contracts, transparency, authorisations, availability and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MEPs underlined the need for more clarity and transparency regarding vaccine contracts, as well as the decision-making process at EU level. They welcomed the European Commission\u2019s openness to share available information whilst also acknowledging that some questions can be better answered by member states and pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many questions concerned possible additional national or bilateral contracts. The Commission confirmed that it is not aware of any such alleged contracts. Through the Joint Procurement Agreement, the EU has priority to deliver vaccines, which will then be distributed to member states on a pro-rata basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following requests from MEPs, the Commission provided information regarding a number of other specific issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A reading room is open for MEPs wishing to review vaccine contracts &#8211; one contract is currently available (CureVac), with others released pending the agreement of pharmaceutical companies;<\/li><li>The European Medicines Agency received the application for the AstraZeneca vaccine today &#8211; the conditional market authorisation is expected at the end of January;<\/li><li>The largest quantities of vaccines are expected during the second quarter of 2021, as already agreed in the existing contracts &#8211; specific strategies for deployment, including priority groups for vaccination, are set up by each member state;<\/li><li>As of next week, a dedicated platform will be available where member states can report, twice a week, the number of vaccines received and used.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Background<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In June 2020, the Commission proposed an&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/IP_20_1103\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>EU vaccines strategy for COVID-19<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;in which it listed&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_20_1903\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>key steps for effective vaccination strategies and vaccine deployment<\/em><\/a><em>. Any vaccine must be&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ema.europa.eu\/en\/human-regulatory\/overview\/public-health-threats\/coronavirus-disease-covid-19\/treatments-vaccines\/covid-19-vaccines-development-evaluation-approval-monitoring\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>authorised by the European Medicines Agency<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;(EMA) in accordance with safety and efficacy standards.<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>At the Plenary session in December 2020, Parliament expressed&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/news\/en\/press-room\/20201216IPR94101\/covid-19-vaccines-parliament-supports-speedy-authorisation-of-safe-vaccines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>support for the speedy authorisation of safe vaccines<\/em><\/a><em>. The Commission has since given conditional marketing authorisation for two COVID-19 vaccines, one developed by&nbsp;<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/statement_20_2510\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>BioNTech and Pfizer<\/em><\/a><\/em><em>&nbsp;and one by&nbsp;<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_21_3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Moderna Biotech Spain, S.L<\/em><\/a><\/em><em>., after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded its assessments of these vaccines.<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety quizzed Sandra Gallina, the EU\u2019s lead negotiator on COVID-19 vaccine contracts, on the latest developments regarding contracts, transparency, authorisations, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4352,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[200],"issuem_issue_categories":[8],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4351"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4355,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4351\/revisions\/4355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=4351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}