LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca will need to deliver less COVID-19 vaccines to the European Union than the bloc had hoped after Brussels lost its quote to accelerate deliveries on Friday, in the first of its legal actions against the drugmaker.
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) said that the EU had lost its legal case, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated the court ruling supported its view that the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant had failed to honour its commitments.
The row plunged the EU into crisis previously this year as states scrambled for shots, highlighting the pressure on them to accelerate vaccinations. Brussels has because mostly cut ties with AstraZeneca, picking not to buy any more of its shots for now.
The drugmaker had committed to do its finest to provide 300 million doses to the 27-nation bloc by the end of June, however production hold-ups led it to revise this to 100 million vaccines.
This delayed the EUs vaccination drive as the bloc had initially bank on AstraZeneca to provide the biggest volume of its shots, sparking a bitter row and EU legal action to get at least 120 million doses by the end of June.
The judge ruled that AstraZeneca must provide only 80.2 million dosages by a due date of Sept. 27. The drugmaker stated it would “significantly exceed” that by the end of June.
The court said in a declaration that AstraZeneca should provide 15 million doses by July 26, another 20 million by Aug. 23 and a more 15 million by Sept. 27, to reach an overall of 50 million dosages, which remain in addition to 30 million that had actually currently been offered to the EU when the legal case began.
Needs to it miss out on the deadlines in the judgment, AstraZeneca would deal with a charge of “10 euros ($ 11.8) per dosage not delivered”, the Commission said, less than the 10 euros per dosage each day fine it had sought in bringing its legal action.
AstraZeneca will remain bound to do its best to provide 300 million doses to the EU, without an exact schedule, and a brand-new hearing could be held in September if it stopped working to do so, an EU legal representative told a news conference.
BRITISH DOSES
The attorney likewise stated the judgment suggested that as an evidence of finest effort AstraZeneca will need to provide COVID-19 vaccines from a factory in Britain, if required to fulfill its EU dedications.
Because it had to supply Britain first, the business had said it might not immediately deliver to the EU doses from an Oxford Biomedica factory.
AstraZeneca said other measures sought by the Commission had been dismissed and the court had actually found that the EU had no exclusivity or right of priority over other celebrations.
” The judgment also acknowledged that the troubles experienced by AstraZeneca in this unprecedented situation had a considerable influence on the hold-up,” it stated in a statement.
” AstraZeneca now looks forward to renewed collaboration with the European Commission to help combat the pandemic in Europe.”
The EU last month introduced a 2nd legal action versus AstraZeneca over a supposed breach of the supply agreement, which will continue after the summer season. Fridays ruling was over whether AstraZeneca needed to speed up vaccine shipments. find out more
Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Muvija M; writing by Alistair Smout; modifying by David Evans
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.