China News Service, January 28. According to the "Central News Agency", the European Union recently had a dispute with the British vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca over the vaccine supply issue. The European Union on the 27th severely demanded AstraZeneca to fulfill its vaccine supply pledge and rejected AstraZeneca and the United Kingdom. "First sign first served" argument.

Data map: On December 27, 2020 local time, many EU member states officially launched the new crown vaccination work.

The picture shows a medical staff in Italy doing the new crown vaccination work.

　　Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner in charge of health services, held a press conference on the 27th local time, saying that pharmaceutical companies and vaccine manufacturers must assume their moral, social responsibilities and contractual spirit. The EU rejects vaccines "first sign, first serve" the rules.

　　AstraZeneca CEO Soriot claimed that AstraZeneca was only required to "do its best" and not contractually obliged to provide a certain amount of new crown vaccine.

Kyria Kiddes said that this view is neither correct nor acceptable.

She called on AstraZeneca to rebuild trust with the EU and provide complete information.

　　Soliote said on the 26th that AstraZeneca and the UK signed a contract three months earlier than the EU. He seemed to point out that "sign first, first serve". This move aroused strong dissatisfaction with the EU, so he held a press conference on the 27th to show a tough stand. .

　　The European Union and AstraZeneca finalized an agreement in August 2020. At that time, they paid an advance payment of 336 million euros to obtain the option of 300 million doses of vaccine and an additional 100 million doses to ensure that the AstraZeneca vaccine once passed the European Medicines Agency (EMA ) Approval, you need to fulfill the contract to deliver the goods.

　　EMA is expected to decide on January 29 whether to approve AstraZeneca’s new crown vaccine, but last week AstraZeneca preemptively notified the EU that even if the vaccine is approved, “the initial supply quantity will be lower than expected” due to a decline in production at a production base.

　　The European Union said that AstraZeneca originally expected to supply about 80 million doses to 27 EU countries by the end of March 2020, but later AstraZeneca said that the supply will be reduced by as much as 60% to 31 million doses.

　　This move irritated the EU and its member states, insisting that AstraZeneca must fulfill its supply commitments.

Italy and Latvia also stated that if AstraZeneca fails to fulfill its promise to supply vaccines on time, it may sue it for breach of contract.