“In the agreement it says: we will do our best, there is no obligation on the delivery of doses. False that we are diverting vials to other countries to the detriment of the Union. They are not violating the contract”. This was stated by the CEO of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, replying to the findings made by the EU after the announced cut by the company of 60% of the doses of its anti-Covid vaccine that will be distributed in the first quarter of 2021 in the EU.
“As soon as we have EMA approval, in the following days – Soroit assured us – we will immediately send 3 million doses to the EU, then there will be another substantial supply in the following week and so in the third and fourth week of next month. The goal is to deliver 17 million doses to the European Union by the end of February. Of these, I make a superficial estimate because the exact allocation is made by the EU, 3 million doses in Germany, about 2.5 in Italy and two in Spain. We would like to be able to do a lot more, but it’s not a little bit either. ” As for the production problems that occurred, Soriot notes that even in Great Britain “we had problems, but the supply contract with the British government was signed three months before the one with the EU and therefore we had time to prepare and resolve similar dysfunctions awaiting the OK from the British drug agency. But between February and March we will resume production at maximum capacity for the EU as well “. Compared to the hypothesis that the doses are diverted to other countries, “this accusation is simply wrong, because, I repeat, we do not make any profits on the coronavirus vaccine either here or elsewhere in the world, and it is written in black and white in the collaboration agreement with Oxford. Of course, many people are tired, the world wants to get vaccinated and governments are under pressure, I fully understand that. But let’s not divert Europeans’ vaccines to other countries which, according to this unjust reconstruction – he concludes – would pay us “.
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