AstraZeneca refuses to give Health Minister vaccine supply commitments
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the pharmaceutical giant did 'recommit to the total volumes being delivered' to Ireland. However, he said the rollout dates for batches is 'an ongoing conversation'.
AstraZeneca has refused to give Health Minister Stephen Donnelly any commitment on when vaccines will arrive into the country.
Mr Donnelly spoke to AstraZeneca's Irish country representative on Thursday night to voice his "frustration" about delays in supply, however, the drug manufacturer still cannot provide timelines on delivery.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is now seeking a meeting with the head of AstraZeneca as issues with supply persist.
Mr Donnelly said the pharmaceutical giant did "recommit to the total volumes being delivered" to Ireland, however, he said the rollout dates for batches is "an ongoing conversation".
"One of the things I said was: 'Look, if you're going to give us dates and you're going to give us volumes, they need to be the right volumes,' because this repeated revising down of the volumes is just causing an awful lot of anxiety for people and it's not fair and it's not right," said Mr Donnelly.
"What I emphasised last night was two issues. The first was that we are very, very frustrated with the fact that the volumes that we have agreed and contracted for are not being met. And secondly, that the volumes are constantly being revised down and it's causing a lot of problems in terms of the logistics and it's causing a lot of anxiety amongst the public."
He did not rule out the possibility that Mr Martin will directly ask for vaccines from the US when he speaks with President Joe Biden as part of St Patrick's Day celebrations next week.
The has reported that tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are sitting in American manufacturing facilities, awaiting results from its US clinical trials while countries that have authorised its use beg for access.
“We understand other governments may have reached out to the US government about donation of AstraZeneca doses, and we’ve asked the US government to give thoughtful consideration to these requests,” said Gonzalo Viña, a spokesman for AstraZeneca told the newspaper.
Asked about the 30m doses now being held in America storage, Mr Donnelly said: "I have no doubt that if that he [Mr Martin] believes that if it would be of use to raise that with the president, he most certainly would."
