Status: 04/26/2021 3:39 PM
The European Union has taken legal action against British-Swedish vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca. A spokesman said the group had failed to abide by the handover contract. AstraZeneca rejects the allegation.
The European Union has filed a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca over major delivery delays. The European Union Commission has filed a lawsuit against the British Swedish company. This was announced by a UNHCR spokesperson. All 27 EU countries will support the move.
AstraZeneca has not held the contract to supply Covid-19 vaccines and does not have a “reliable” plan to deliver them on time in the future.
The company cut deliveries
Under the contract, the company committed to deliver 180 million doses of the vaccine to the European Union “at its best” in the second quarter of this year. However, in a statement released on March 12 this year, the company said it intends to deliver only a third of it.
A week later, the European Union Commission sent a letter to the company in the first step of the official dispute settlement procedure. The lawsuit is now the next step. However, this should not change anything regarding delivery backlog.
The relationship between the EU Commission and the company has been tense for a long time – also because Great Britain has not been affected much by delivery problems. Therefore, the European Union has introduced an export control mechanism. Delivery of 250,000 AstraZeneca packages from Italy to Australia has been banned.
AstraZeneca: We keep our agreements
AstraZeneca has now justified its approach. According to the company’s reaction to the Brussels announcement, the company has complied with the contract with the European Union Commission and will defend itself in court. “We believe this litigation is unfounded and we welcome the opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible,” AstraZeneca said.
According to forecasts, nearly 50 million doses of vaccine will be delivered to European Union countries by the end of April. They are also working to increase production as quickly as possible.
Most BioNTech / Pfizer Vaccine
A large portion of the vaccine that is currently being injected in the European Union comes from the German manufacturer BioNTech and its American partner, Pfizer. In addition to AstraZeneca, preparations from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson also have European approval.
AstraZeneca is now only used on a limited scale in many European Union countries because it has been linked to very rare cases of cerebral venous thrombosis. However, it is still unrestrictedly approved by the European Union Medicines Agency (EMA).