MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2021) The European Union is planning to take up the matter of the bloc-wide AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine delivery delays with the help of the United States, the European Commission told the Financial Times on Saturday.
The EU is currently going through a spat with the UK-Swedish drugmaker over delayed vaccine shipments. Brussels even threatened to take legal action against AstraZeneca after it said it would deliver only 31 million of the 80 million doses contracted for the first quarter. The row with the pharmaceutical giant took another turn this week after Italy, in coordination with the EU, blocked a shipment of 250,000 coronavirus shots bound for Australia.
"We trust that we can work together with the US to ensure that vaccines produced or bottled in the US for the fulfilment of vaccine producers' contractual obligations with the EU will be fully honoured," the European Commission told the newspaper.
According to the Financial Times, citing EU officials, Brussels will raise the issue during the upcoming transatlantic discussions.
AstraZeneca was committed to delivering 180 million doses to Europe in the second quarter of 2021, and the European Commission was getting ready to dispatch the shots to all corners of the bloc. Now, media report that it would deliver less than 90 million doses in the second quarter.
In late January, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot angrily refuted any quantified commitments to the EU for the first quarter. The European Commission had disputed his arguments and asked the company to publish the contract.
