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The EU and AstraZeneca on Friday ended months of fighting before public opinion and the courts. After two trials in Belgium, one sentence and the gates of a second, both parties have reached an agreement for the

delivery of 200 million doses of their vaccine

against Covid19, an advance that will put an end to the legal dispute.

"Today's agreement guarantees delivery of the remaining 200 million doses. While this week we reached the important milestone of complete vaccination of 70% of EU adults, there are significant differences in vaccination rates between our Member States. , and the continued availability of vaccines, including that from AstraZeneca, remains crucial. In addition, as the biggest advocates of global vaccine cooperation and solidarity, we will continue to help the rest of the world. The goal is to share at least 200 million of vaccine doses through COVAX with low- and middle-income countries until the end of this year. Solidarity with vaccines is and continues to be our trademark, "said Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides.

The European Commission, which since 2020 has been in charge of negotiating and purchasing vaccines on behalf of the 27, went to court after the unilateral announcement by the pharmaceutical company that it could not meet its commitments.

Brussels first tried to convince the company by the good, then resorted to pressure in public and private, resorted to arbitration provided for in the contracts and, given the failure of all the channels, it finally opted for the legal route in Belgium.

At the beginning of the year, the Anglo-Swedish firm informed the EU that it could not meet the agreed delivery of 120 million vaccines scheduled for the first quarter of the year.

The estimate was lowered, first to 100 million, then 80 and in

the end it only reached 30 million in the month of March.

The EU never accepted the company's version and demanded that what was signed be respected. AstraZeneca knows that the contract does not guarantee a specific volume, but that every effort will be made to achieve it. The 27, however, tried to show that this was not the case and that AstraZeneca was not using all its capacities and facilities, either because it had signed too many agreements with too many clients, or because of pressure from the British Government, which, according to that vision, would have priority in deliveries , something allegedly illegal, according to Brussels.

In June, the Brussels Court of First Instance recognized in a ruling that the company had violated contracts and did not do everything in its power to deliver the hundreds of millions of agreed vaccines. And it gave him a concrete timetable to do it. The judge, however, did not punish the pharmaceutical company as requested by the European Commission, questioning the soundness of what was signed in August last year.

The European Commission demanded the delivery of 120 million doses quickly and a total of 300 million before the end of September, as contained in the agreements signed last year. The Court, however, set a much less onerous delivery schedule: 15 million doses before July 26; another 20 million before August 23; and 15 million more before September 27. But that does not mean that AstraZeneca had to deliver an additional 50 million in addition to what it has already remitted until that day. The pharmacist had given in hand 30 million until March and the Justice simply told him that he had to add 50 more before October. In fact,

in these months AstraZeneca had already contributed 40 million more to the EU

.

So I really only had to supply a little over 10 million from here to the end of the summer, something that was going to happen without any problem.

The agreement reached now, before a second complaint was resolved in court, contemplates that AstraZeneca will deliver 135 million additional doses (in addition to the 100 million already delivered) before the end of this year, 60 million before the end this month and another 75 before the end of December.

In addition, a final delivery of 65 million units is contemplated for March 2022. All added would bring up to the 300 million doses that were signed in August 2020, the complete package.

It is the desired result, but with delays.

If there were additional delays, the EU would be reimbursed 10% of the cost of each dose for each month of waiting, 25% for each two months and up to 40% thereafter.

AstraZeneca will be held liable, but will be spared any possible penalties for delays incurred so far, much to the chagrin of Brussels.

The Commission has explained that it will send a delivery schedule to the capitals as soon as possible.

Many countries no longer have AstraZeneca for their immunization plans, but for others it will remain key, as they are enormously behind their neighbors.

In addition, the EU plans to donate a good part of these doses to the neediest non-EU countries.

The out-of-court settlement does not imply a change in depth.

There was a lot of pressure in the spring, but now everything has changed.

The result leaves serious doubts about the strength of the signed contracts, but as the rest of the suppliers have been complying, and especially Pfizer, the situation has been under control and the feeling in Brussels is one of satisfaction.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Science and Health

  • European Union

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccines

  • AstraZeneca

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