US to send four million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada

The vaccine maker has millions of doses made and stored in a US facility

Packages of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine are seen at a vaccination centre. Reuters

The US plans to send about four million doses of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, an official told Reuters on Thursday.

Mexico will receive 2.5 million doses of the vaccine and Canada is to receive 1.5 million doses, the official said.

"We're lending a portion of our releasable doses of AstraZeneca vaccine," the official told Reuters. "We only put the virus behind us if we're helping our global partners."

The Biden administration is under pressure from allies worldwide to share vaccines, particularly from AstraZeneca, which is authorised for use in other countries but not yet in the US.

AstraZeneca has millions of doses made in a US facility and has said that it would have 30 million doses ready at the beginning of April. The company's shares rose slightly on the news.

The deal to share the vaccines, which is still being finalised, does not affect President Joe Biden's plans to have vaccine available for all adults in the US by the end of May, the official said. It does not reduce the supply of available vaccine in the US.

The deal is likely to be announced publicly in the coming days.

Two officials said the vaccine would be delivered in "short order" once the deal was completed, but they declined to give a more specific timetable.

The releasable vaccines are ready to be used once they arrive. Under the deal, the US will share doses with Mexico and Canada with the understanding that they will pay the US back with doses in return. The official said that would take place later this year.

The US had no plans to share the vaccine with other countries at this time, he said.

"They are our neighbours, they are our partners," the official said about Mexico and Canada.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had requested the vaccine previously, and the official said the countries were in touch about the vaccine loan.

"We've been working through the diplomatic channels," he said.

Mr Biden said if the US has a surplus of vaccine, it will share it with the rest of the world. The White House has focused on vaccinating people in the US, where more than 530,000 people have died from the virus.

The country is preparing to distribute the AstraZeneca vaccine domestically if it receives authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration, the official said.

The official noted that the US has pledged $4 billion to the Covax vaccine facility that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.

The US does not need the AstraZeneca shots to meet its target of having enough doses for all US adults by the end of May.

The three authorised vaccine makers – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – promised to deliver about 500 million doses to the US by then.

Reports of blood disorders prompted more than a dozen nations to suspend its use, but on Thursday the EU's drug watchdog, the European Medicines Agency, said that after an investigation, it is still convinced the benefits of AstraZeneca's vaccine outweigh the risks.