The European Commission has started legal action against British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca due to breaches of its COVID-19 vaccine supply contract.
The EU executive branch began the process on Friday because some terms of the contract have not been respected, commission spokesperson Stefan De Keersmaecker said on Monday.
Furthermore, “the company has not been in a position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure the timely delivery of doses,’’ the spokesperson told reporters in Brussels.
“We want to make sure that there is a speedy delivery of a sufficient number of doses that European citizens are entitled to, and which have been promised on the basis of the contract,’’ he added.
The 27 EU member states support the move, according to De Keersmaecker.
The case is to be heard in Belgian courts.
After repeatedly revising downward the amount of doses it was expected to deliver, AstraZeneca is now aiming to deliver 70 million doses in the second quarter of the year, according to the EU executive.
This is significantly less than the 180 million the commission says the company was aiming to deliver in that period, with the entire contract covering 300 million doses.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s vaccine tracker, only 31 million doses have been distributed to the European Union and European Economic Area since deliveries began.
The row about delivery shortfalls has been running since January, when AstraZeneca announced production hiccups were affecting their EU supply chain.
Brussels was particularly frustrated that neighbouring Britain’s supply of AstraZeneca shots remained unaffected, inspite of the both purchase contracts dating from August 2020.
The bloc even halted the export of 250,000 of the company’s vaccine doses from Italy to Australia, arguing it must first honour its contractual obligations to the European Union.
As a first step, the EU executive branch launched a dispute resolution process with AstraZeneca in March.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca expressed has expressed regret over the European Commission’s decision to launch legal action against it over breaches of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine doses supplies contract.
The company insisted in a statement on Monday that it was in full compliance with the agreement.
“AstraZeneca regrets the European Commission’s decision to take legal action over the supply of COVID-19 vaccines… Our company is about to deliver almost 50 million doses to European countries by the end of April, in line with our forecast.
“AstraZeneca has fully complied with the Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission and will strongly defend itself in court.
“We believe any litigation is without merit and we welcome this opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible,” the company said.
AstraZeneca added that it remains committed to constructive cooperation with the commission “to vaccinate as many people as possible.”