11 april 2021
20:52
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The British-Swedish pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca has turned East Indian deaf to a European request for clarification on the slow vaccine deliveries to Europe. The French business newspaper Les Echos and the Italian daily Corriere della Sera wrote this this weekend. AstraZeneca contradicted that report Sunday evening.
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The European Union and AstraZeneca have been on a collision course for some time. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical group was angry with European policymakers for failing to meet its commitments to supplying corona vaccines to the European Union in recent months. Instead of the 120 million agreed doses, the EU received only 30 million units in the first months of 2021.
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In a letter to AstraZeneca dated March 19, the European Commission expressed its dissatisfaction with the slow deliveries of the vaccine. “ AstraZeneca has broken its contractual obligations to manufacture and supply the initial 300 million doses for Europe and the company continues to break those obligations as well, ” complained Sandra Gallina, head of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, according to French business newspaper Les Echos and the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in the letter to.
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Brussels accuses the pharmaceutical group of not having made the ‘best possible efforts’ to fulfill its commitments. ‘And that in an unjust and incomprehensible way’, the two newspapers say in the letter.
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Production capacity
However, AstraZeneca had never reported supply problems, “which the company had to do under the contract. “It has never invoked force majeure,” Gallina points out in the letter. “On the contrary, in a progress report on January 19, AstraZeneca assured that it had secured supply capacity and explained to the group that it did not see any significant risk that would prevent it from meeting its commitments.”
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In the letter, Brussels once more accuses AstraZeneca of not having ‘not fully utilized its production capacity, including its sites in the United Kingdom’. In recent months it had become known that none of the vaccines made in the UK have been exported to Europe, while AstraZeneca vaccines have been shipped from Europe to the other side of the Channel.
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AstraZeneca has broken its contractual obligations to manufacture and supply the initial 300 million doses for Europe and the company continues to break those obligations.
Sandra Gallina
Head of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the EU
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In the letter of March 19, Gallina gave the British-Swedish pharmaceutical group “20 days to remedy the breaches of the contract.” That deadline expired two days ago, but AstraZeneca has not yet replied to the letter, Les Echos and de Corriere reported.
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The pharmaceutical company contradicted that report Sunday evening in an email to the British news agency Reuters. “We can confirm that we responded to the Commission within the given timeframe and that our team had a good meeting with the Commission last week,” said Matthew Kent, AstraZeneca’s Director of Global Media Relations, in the email.
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Dialogue
A spokesman for the European Commission had previously confirmed to British Reuters news agency on Sunday that a letter had been sent to AstraZeneca on March 19. “It was a dispute settlement notice.” The spokesperson described it as a first step towards a dialogue to resolve the issue.
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We are still waiting for the necessary elements. We will remain in contact with AstraZeneca to ensure the timely delivery of sufficient doses.
Spokesman European Commission
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‘We are still waiting for the necessary elements. We will remain in contact with AstraZeneca to ensure the timely delivery of sufficient doses, ”it said.
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According to the contract the EU concluded with the company, in the event of a dispute, one of the parties must first raise the problem in a letter. “Twenty days after such written notice, the parties must meet and try to resolve the dispute through good faith negotiations,” it added.
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