Re: Coronavirus
 

That was back in March. In the end they didn't develop a vaccine.
They are now making the Oxford-AZ vaccine.Your second link is from spring 2015 and includes references to UK DTI funding.

So the production is not funded by the EU.
The list of sites on the EU-AZ agreement will be to avoid being required to ship it from places such as the Brazil plant. It is not a list of sites that the EU "owns".

Re: Coronavirus
 

I have had good and bad experiences when contract negotiations go to the top to be honest. Our sales people get very worried when some members of the executive go into a customers site and start making promises no-one can keep :)

Re: Coronavirus
 

Time to warm up the SAS to defend our supplies :)

Re: Coronavirus
 

No, it's a rebuttal of "it's been there 20 years", as if there were only UK funding for the company - the EU helped fund the research which made the production possible.

I don't think the EU has any claim on the O/AZ vaccines produced in the UK, but the denial of the facts that EU put some funding into the process is not accurate.

---------- Post added at 21:21 ---------- Previous post was at 21:19 ----------

Been there, done that - worst case if Execs & Sales go in, and won't have a meeting before hand with Production to agree a script/limits/things not to promise (and apparently, screaming "WTAF are you doing - that's impossible" is frowned upon by Senior Management in client meetings :D).

Re: Coronavirus
 

As I pointed out, not only was the article from spring 2015, it mentions various collaborations with UK universities and funding from UKs Department of Trade and Industry. The article talks about research into administering vaccines orally. How is that connected to anything?
The way EU funding worked for the UK was that 66% of any money that came back to the UK, was taken off the rebate. Therefore well over 66% of the EU money actually came from the UK. Eg if the EU spent 3m Euros in the UK, 2m of that would be knocked off the rebate and be extra money the UK had to pay.

Anything that the EU is supposed to have funded, is completely unrelated to Covid.


The EU will still have the Pfizer vaccine...

But not if they blockade the UK.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Unless I’m completely misreading the various documents that have been posted this afternoon, the key factor is whether EU money paid to AstraZeneca as a direct consequence of the contract was used to build vaccine production facilities in the UK

If the EU wants to lay claim to the output of anything in the UK that has at some point benefited from an EU grant, that’s ridiculous, and obviously isn’t going to get them anywhere. EU development funds have been spent all over the place. And let’s not even get started on the whole business of us being net contributors to the whole party, so it was our flaming money before they appropriated it and then sent it back across the channel with an EU flag on it. But I digress ...

Re: Coronavirus
 

Breaking news

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55850352

Here’s hoping - I am taking part in this trial (50/50 chance of vaccine/placebo)

Re: Coronavirus
 

One remarkable thing is the efficacy against the Kent variant, even 50% effective against the SA variant in HIV trial participants, which given their immune system issues is good news.

Re: Coronavirus
 

David Allen Green, a procurement lawyer, has looked at the contract with Curevac and drawn some conclusions, assuming that the contract with AstraZeneca is very similar.

https://www.ft.com/content/c4cde78a-...1-73be810249cf

More detail available on the author's personal blog: https://davidallengreen.com/2021/01/...ply-agreement/

Re: Coronavirus
 

It looks like Fujifilm Diosynth up in Billingham, near Middlesbrough has the contract to make this one. Fuji is on an old ICI chemicals plant in an area best described as 'bleak'.

Having a Parmo makes visiting worthwhile though

Re: Coronavirus
 

The Curevac contract also says that the EUs order is to be fulfilled before anybody else, including individual EU countries such as Germany, which has a separate order with them. If the UK one with AZ has a similar clause then AZ is forced to supply the UK first.
Link


How long does the AZ vaccine last for in longer-term storage? Can it be stored for several months?

It has occurred to me that the early output of the EU-based plants has to go somewhere, and as the EU has yet to authorise it, it possibly has had to go somewhere such as the UK.

Under EU rules, can a product, of whatever type, that is not authorised for use in the EU, only be sent outside the EU? Eg Can an EU business, produce products destined for the US, that would not be allowed to be marketed and sold in the EU?

Re: Coronavirus
 

Absolutely, happens all the time with things like electrical products.

Re: Coronavirus
 

My previous wife came from Stockton, so I often visited that area in the 70s and 80s when I was on leave - at the height of ICI production, as you drove up the A19 into Teeside, at night it was like a apocalyptic scene from Bladerunner, with all the lights, vapours, and flames blowing out of the chimney vents.

Now, as you say, more post-apocalyptic - a wasteland.

Re: Coronavirus
 

That would mean the Belgian AZ plant might have had little choice other than to send it to the UK, if that is what has been going on. If it can be stored longer term, why should AZ be expected to store it until the EU finally approves it?

Re: Coronavirus
 

What do you think Bladerunner was based off? ;) And it isn't that bad, it is charming in its own way.

It's good to see to see the plant being used for something like this.