- The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company is far from fulfilling its delivery promise, disrupting the early stages of the EU’s Covid-19 vaccine launch, and Brussels is angry about this.
- Officials accused AstraZeneca of prioritizing the delivery of British vaccines to EU orders, and the European Commission lawyers went to court to demand delivery.
- A statement from the European Commission stated that AstraZeneca delivered 100 million doses of vaccine in the first half of 2021.
The European Union and the UK-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced on Friday that they have reached a settlement over the dispute over the shortage of coronavirus vaccines.
The agreement will enable the company to deliver the remaining 300 million doses of vaccines promised in its contract with the European Union by the end of March 2022 and end a battle in the Belgian courts.
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company is far from fulfilling its delivery promise, disrupting the early stages of the EU’s Covid-19 vaccine launch, and Brussels is angry about this.
Officials accused AstraZeneca of prioritizing the delivery of UK vaccines over EU orders, while lawyers for the European Commission went to court to demand delivery or see huge daily fines for any ongoing shortages.
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However, the company argued that its contract with the European Union only forced it to “do its best” to achieve its delivery goals, and that the production bottleneck of its European factories is inevitable.
In June, in an interim ruling pending the final settlement of the case, the Brussels court imposed a new delivery schedule on AstraZeneca, and AstraZeneca was able to comply with the schedule.
All parties have now agreed to extend the deadline to next year.
Ruud Dobber, Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca Biopharmaceuticals said:
I am very happy that we have reached a consensus, which allows us to move forward and work with the European Commission to help overcome this epidemic.
AstraZeneca produces a vaccine designed by the University of Oxford in the UK and sells it on a non-profit basis-its version is cheaper and easier to store than many competitors.
However, the European Union is frustrated by the slow supply speed and has made another vaccine produced by the US giant Pfizer and German BioNTech as the main force in its procurement plan.
A statement from the European Commission stated that AstraZeneca delivered 100 million doses of vaccine in the first half of 2021, and will deliver another 135 million doses by the end of the year, and another 65 million doses will be supplied by March 2022.
“This will bring the total dose delivered to the contractually agreed 300 million doses,” it said.
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