COVID-19: EU files lawsuit against AstraZeneca for delaying 90 million vaccines

The European Union on Monday announced that it was suing the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca if it fails to deliver 90 million more doses as a part of the deal before July. The contract was signed between the European Commission negotiated together with the EU Member States and AstraZeneca in August last year for the shipment of 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with an option for a further 100 million doses.

The deal also allowed the EU Member States to donate their vaccine doses to lower and middle-income countries or to re-direct them to other European countries. But the European Union’s executive arm took legal action against AstraZeneca for not making those deliveries in a timely manner. 

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had earlier asked AstraZeneca to “fulfill part of the deal toward Europe before start to deliver to other countries.” She told German media group, Funke, that the contract regulated how much vaccines the EU gets from AstraZeneca’s plants inside the EU and in Britain. 

"We didn’t get anything from the Brits while we are delivering vaccines to them,” she said adding until last month that it was a formal reminder to the pharmaceutical company to meet its obligation. 

Lawsuit to get 'speedy' delivery of pending orders

However, on Monday, European Commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker told a media conference that the court will now step in to make the company deliver EU’s 90 million additional doses, in addition to the 30 million doses which were delivered in the first quarter. EU has been struggling to vaccinate the population amid the shortfall he warned. AstraZeneca has repeatedly cited production problems for unable to meet the EU targets, adding in press statements that it was making the best efforts to deliver.

EU reiterated that the legal action against breach of contract was not to threaten AstraZeneca but attain the long-pending “speedy” shipment of the vaccines to inoculate the population. Last month, head of the European commission Ursula von der Leyen had also announced that that the EU was accelerating its vaccine supply from Pfizer, and the bulk deliveries an estimated 250 million doses are expected to be shipped by the second quarter.