AstraZeneca welcomes Court ruling on supply of its COVID-19 vaccine to EU:
AstraZeneca today welcomed the ruling by the Court of First Instance in Brussels. The European Commission had requested 120 million vaccine doses cumulatively by the end of June 2021, and a total of 300 million doses by the end of September 2021 The judge ordered delivery of 80 million doses by 27 September 2021. To date, the Company has supplied more than 70 million doses to the European Union and will substantially exceed 80 million doses by the end of June 2021 All other measures sought by the European Commission have been dismissed, and in particular the Court found that the European Commission has no exclusivity or right of priority over all other contracting parties.
The judgement also acknowledged that the difficulties experienced by AstraZeneca in this unprecedented situation had a substantial impact on the delay. AstraZeneca now looks toward to renewed collaboration with the European Commission to help combat the pandemic in Europe. The Company remains committed to broad and equitable distribution of the vaccine as laid out in the Advanced Purchase Agreement of August 2020.
The judgement did however order that AstraZeneca was to deliver 50 million doses of vaccine by 27 September 2021 – according to a binding schedule:
Which is less than the company already expects to deliver by September, a further 80 million doses – which is 30 million more than ordered. In the unlikely event of non-compliance with these delivery deadlines AstraZeneca will have to pay a penalty of €10 per dose not delivered. AstraZeneca, it should be noted, is already the second-largest supplier to the EU’s 27 member states. At cost price…
