EU Sues AstraZeneca over vaccine contract breach

The European Commission has started legal action against British-Swedish company AstraZeneca due to breaches of its COVID-19 vaccine supply contract.

The commission spokesperson, Stefan De Keersmaecker said the company has not been in a position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure the timely delivery of doses.

“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.”

De Keersmaecker mentioned that the process began on Friday because some terms of the contract have not been respected, the case is to be heard in Belgian courts.

The commission said the company was aiming to deliver the entire contract covering 300 million doses in that period.

AstraZeneca is now aiming to deliver 70 million doses in the second quarter of the year, after repeatedly revising downward the amount of doses it was expected to deliver.

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, in spite of 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.

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