The European Commission is taking legal action against the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for failing to solve problems with the delivery of its coronavirus vaccine.
The Commission started the legal action against the company last Friday, Commission spokesperson Stefan De Keersmaeker announced Monday.
The reason for the legal action is that "some terms of the contract have not been respected, and the company has not been in a position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure the timely delivery of doses," he added.
According to AstraZeneca's contract, the company promised to deliver 300 million vaccine doses to the EU by the summer, but only 30 million arrived in the first quarter, and the company "has indicated that it is on track to deliver 70 million" by the end of June.
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"What matters to us, in this case, is that we want to make sure that there is a speedy delivery of sufficient number of doses that the European citizens are entitled to and which have been promised on the basis of the contract," De Keersmaeker added.
Shortly after the announcement on Monday, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides tweeted that "[the Commission's] priority is to ensure Covid-19 vaccine deliveries take place to protect the health of the EU."
Our priority is to ensure #COVID19 vaccine deliveries take place to protect the health of ??.
This is why @EU_Commission has decided jointly with all Member States to bring legal proceedings against #AstraZeneca. Every vaccine dose counts. Every vaccine dose saves lives. — Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) April 26, 2021
"This is why the European Commission has decided jointly with all Member States to bring legal proceedings against AstraZeneca," she added. "Every vaccine dose counts. Every vaccine dose saves lives."
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
