AstraZeneca: “We responded to the European Union’s message on time”

The European Union and AstraZeneca have been on a collision course for some time. The British-Swedish Medicines Group has been angry with European policymakers for failing to fulfill their commitments to supply Corona vaccines to the European Union in recent months. Instead of the agreed 120 million doses, the European Union received only 30 million units in the first months of 2021.

In a letter to AstraZeneca dated 19 March, the European Commission expressed its dissatisfaction with the slow delivery of the vaccine. Sandra Galina, Head of the General Directorate of Health and Food Safety, complained that “ AstraZeneca has breached its contractual obligations to manufacture and supply 300 million initial doses to Europe and the company continues to violate those obligations as well. ” French business newspaper Les Echos and Italian daily Corriere della Sera in the letter to.

Brussels accuses the Medicines group of not making “the best possible efforts” to fulfill its obligations. “This is in an unfair and incomprehensible way,” according to the two newspapers, according to the letter.

However, AstraZeneca never reported supply problems, “which is what the company was required to do under contract.” In the letter Galina notes: “He never invoked force majeure.” “On the contrary, AstraZeneca confirmed in a progress report released on January 19 that it had secured its supply capacity and made clear to the group that it did not see any major risks that would prevent it from fulfilling its obligations.”

In the letter, Brussels again accuses AstraZeneca of “not using its full production capacity, including its UK locations”. In recent months, it has become known that none of the vaccines made in the UK have been exported to Europe, while AstraZeneca vaccines have been shipped from Europe to the other side of the canal.

In the letter dated March 19, Galina gave the British-Swedish pharmaceutical group “20 days to correct breaches of contract”. The deadline expired two days ago, but AstraZeneca has yet to respond to the letter, Les Echos and de Corriere reported.

The drug company contradicted that report on Sunday evening in an email to Reuters. “We can confirm that we responded to UNHCR within the stipulated timeframe and that our team had a good meeting with the commission last week,” Matthew Kent, Director of Global Media Relations at AstraZeneca’s said in the email.

A European Commission spokesman had earlier confirmed to Reuters news agency on Sunday that a letter had been sent to AstraZeneca on March 19. It was a notice of dispute settlement. ”The spokesperson described it as a first step towards dialogue to resolve the issue.

“We are still waiting for the necessary ingredients. We will keep in touch with AstraZeneca to ensure adequate doses are delivered in a timely manner.”

According to the contract that the European Union entered into with the company, in the event of a dispute, one of the parties must first raise the issue in a letter. Twenty days after this written notification, the parties must meet and seek to resolve the dispute through negotiations in good faith.