Commentary: Europe has a huge COVID-19 vaccine mess to clean up

European Union (EU) countries have been beset by disagreements on which vaccines to procure and different regulatory practices, says an immunology professor.
 

Faced with these challenges, the European Commission established a task force to manage vaccine supply in the coming months. 

Led by Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, the task force aims to mobilise all available European production capacity, with the ambitious objective of immunising 70 per cent of European adults by the end of summer.

In parallel, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in February the establishment of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) Incubator, an agency charged with tackling new coronavirus variants.

HERA is intended to play a role similar to that of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which has been instrumental in the unprecedentedly rapid development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

And through BARDA, the US quickly secured a massive COVID-19 vaccine supply that has enabled the country to launch a much faster immunisation drive than Europe.
 

LEARNING FROM OPERATION WARP SPEED

The success of the US government&rsquo s Operation Warp Speed effort to develop COVID-19 vaccines is due not only to the scheme&rsquo s budget of more than US$12 billion but also to its integration and coordination of steps throughout the vaccine value chain, from basic research to large-scale production and distribution.

This strategy entailed significant risk-taking, shared between the public and private sectors.