The AstraZeneca laboratory's Covid-19 vaccine, placed on a European flag.

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Action Press // SIPA

The conflict continues between Brussels and AstraZeneca.

Following the significant delays in deliveries from the Anglo-Swedish company, the European Commission said Monday to distance itself from the laboratory as part of its vaccine strategy against Covid-19.

AstraZeneca, whose product "was going to be the mass vaccine for the first quarter" of 2021, could only guarantee 25% of the more than 100 million doses promised, which represents "a real problem" for the Twenty-Seven, Commission Director General for Health, Sandra Gallina, told MEPs.

The European Commission is therefore now turning to vaccines manufactured by BioNTech / Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson laboratories, she stressed.

The German laboratory BioNTech promised Monday to deliver to the EU up to 75 million additional doses in the second quarter of the vaccine developed with the American Pfizer.

“There will be a lot more doses in the second quarter because a new contract will go into effect.

We will not only have BioNTech and Moderna but we will have BioNTech with a new contract, it is double the quantities, ”recalled Sandra Gallina.

AstraZeneca promises to "do its best"

To respond to the many criticisms of the delay in deliveries, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot assured that the company had only promised to "do its best" to honor its contract.

"The calendars are restrictive when it comes to the vaccine order form (...) So I do not see where your efforts are there," retorted Sandra Gallina.

She also stressed that, under contracts between the EU and vaccine manufacturers, "we can either receive the products or [get reimbursed] for the amounts we have paid".

The European Commission has allocated 336 million euros to AstraZeneca to develop its vaccine and increase its production capacities, although the full amount has not been paid.

“I don't have the vaccine, you don't have the payment from the Commission,” Sandra Gallina summed up.

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