U.S. Rejects Requests from Other Countries to Share Covid Vaccine Doses: Psaki

The White House says the U.S. will hold onto the small stockpile of AstraZeneca vaccine although it has yet to be approved in the for use.

"We're following the exact same process that we did with the other three now approved vaccines, Moderna, Pfizer and J and J, and just as we did with those vaccines, as we awaited for the completion of the clinical trial," said White House Coranvirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients.

"We have a small inventory of AstraZeneca so that if approved, we can get that inventory out to the American people as quickly as possible as we just did with J and J. So AstraZeneca, we're awaiting the clinical trial and then the decision by the FDA and CDC."

This comes as American allies are struggling to get enough doses for vulnerable populations.

The two-dose vaccine from AstraZeneca has received emergency approval from the European Union and World Health Organization, but not in the U.S.

Now U.S. partners are prodding President Joe Biden to release the supply, noting that the administration has lined up enough doses of the three already-approved vaccines to cover every American adult by the end of May and the entire U.S. population by the end of July.

EU member states’ ambassadors this week discussed the challenge of accessing US-produced doses of the AstraZeneca shots.

The German government said on Friday it was in contact with U.S. officials about vaccine supplies, but stressed that the European Commission had the lead when it comes to procuring shots for member states.

Even though it is not approved in the U.S., well over 10 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine are stockpiled in the country for domestic use and cannot be exported under the terms of the company’s agreement with the federal government.

Drug manufacturers that received federal assistance in developing or expanding vaccine manufacturing of doses were required to sell their first doses to the U.S. In the case of AstraZeneca, whose vaccine was initially expected to be the first to receive federal emergency use authorization, the U.S. government ordered 300 million doses - enough for 150 million Americans - before issues with the vaccine’s clinical trial held up its approval in the U.S.

As foreign regulators have moved ahead with approval for the shot, the U.S. has not dropped its contractual claim on the initial doses produced in the U.S.

That policy has also come under criticism from U.S. neighbors like Canada and Mexico, which have been forced to seek vaccine manufactured on a different continent, rather than across the border. Its enforcement comes as the Biden administration has purchased enough doses of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to be able to inoculate 150 million more people than its population by the end of the year.

The U.S. has also ordered 110 million doses of vaccine from Novavax, which is expected to file for emergency approval as soon as next month.

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