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Comment by reddotX | Hacker News Reader

source?

> Those EU facilities are in turn dependent on vaccine inputs — such as the lipid nanoparticles needed in mRNA vaccines and the plastic bags used in bioreactors — some of which are imported from the UK and the US. [0]

(I believe that some UK companies supply the lipids)

[0] https://www.ft.com/content/773245da-900a-468e-aaf3-96ec8c433...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14400027/pfizer-warns-eu-threa...

Block AZ in the EU, you'll force the populist Johnson into tit-for-tat retaliation - and we'll all go to hell in a hand-cart.

the sun LMAO, stop reading British tabloids

You don't think Croda are important then?

Or that this deal doesn't exist? https://www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/croda-covid-va...

This has been debunked, it's just rumors with no support, both Pfizer and BioNTech secured critical supplies in the beginning of the year for EU production - internally in Europe (2 German companies if I recall correctly), from Canada, and from the UK.

At best banning those exports would just harm the production of surplus vaccines/exports. It would be the UK crippling their own supply of vaccines - which they have received 10 million so far from Pfizer made in Belgium.

I agree such a move would be somewhat self destructive. But given the uk is already >50% with a 1st dose, and has Moderna contracts supplying from next month, I would not rule it out.

I also would point out: Boris, aka mini-trump. Populists would not let such a challenge go without reply.

Good luck if you think the report is completely wrong.

I don't think it needs to be completely wrong, it could simply be someone internally in Pfizer venting off that if the UK would cut that supply it would hurt Pfizer operational results predictions, or simply that it would be noticed in their production, or it's just someone answering "yes" to the questions: "would this be bad for pfizer/vaccines".

Also the frame wouldn't make any sense:

The EU will be controlling exports of AZ vaccine to enforce a company fulfill their contractual obligations (which they have failed completely, several times), and the UK would stop exporting a component for Pfizer? For what? To let it spoil and ruin a UK business that invested and ramped up production to have their production stalled? To hurt their own vaccine supply?

I really don't see it.

It's not a rumour, Pfizer said it: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/half-uk-adults-receive-fir...

I'm sure they are not completely dependent on UK supplies, but by the sounds of it, it will cause them some issues.

Either way, I very much doubt that's a card that UK wish to play.

From the original source:

>The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine recently announced contracts with the Germany-based companies Evonik and Merck KGaA to dramatically scale up the supply of lipids.

>However, in a recent conference call with industry leaders and German politicians including Angela Merkel, the chancellor, Sierk Poetting, the BioNTech chief operating officer, warned that lipids supply remained the key bottleneck facing production of the Pfizer vaccine and said it would take up to eight months to boost production.

Basically the UK would be hurting mostly themselves.

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