The EU Commission has sued the vaccine maker for drastically reducing shipments to the EU. The EU Commission has accused the British-Swedish vaccine manufacturer of non-compliance with the agreements.
Due to massive delays in the delivery of vaccines, EU Commission has accused manufacturer AstraZeneca of a “manifest breach” of contractual obligations. The British-Swedish company “did not use all the instruments at its disposal” to deliver the contracted quantities to the EU on time, lawyer Rafael Jeffareli, who represents the EU Commission and member states, said in Brussels on Wednesday. Instead, the company “has shipped 50 million doses to third countries.”
Another dispute like the one with Brexit?
The European Union last year contracted a request for 300 million AstraZeneca vaccines. Instead of the 120 million vaccines it was planned to receive in the first quarter of this year, the company has sent only 30 million to the EU. AstraZeneca claims that there were problems at the beginning of production. But AstraZeneca did not fulfill the contracted agreement even in the second quarter of this year, because it made available only 70 instead of the 180 million doses provided by the contract.
Delays in the delivery of contracted quantities have also severely damaged the EU vaccination campaign. The EU was particularly angry at the fact that AstraZeneca had shipped to the UK all the contracted quantities, while in the EU it did not.
Big disagreements
The EU Commission has sued AstraZeneca in court in Belgium in late April. It demands that all planned quantities of about 200 million doses be shipped by mid-June. Otherwise, it will seek damages.
AstraZeneca has rejected the EU requirements. According to them, the contract stipulates that the company must make the best possible efforts to achieve the agreed goals.
Plaintiff’s attorney, Jeffarelli, told the court that AstraZeneca had the opportunity to mobilize six manufacturing sites in order to supply the EU on time. He announced that at the end of last year, this company even sent vaccines to Japan, from a production site in Halix, the Netherlands./DW
