Swedish drug manufacturer AstraZeneca and the European Union have come to a settlement deal to secure the delivery of the remaining COVID-19 vaccine doses to Member States
The European Union (E.U.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.) – Swedish drug manufacturer AstraZeneca have settled their dispute over the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine roll-out, which brought the two parties to Court.
As per the new agreement, AstraZeneca has agreed to deliver 200 million doses of its vaccine, which had been promised under a contract, to the E.U. by the end of March 2022. This comes when 70% of European population has been vaccinated.
Speaking on the occasion, the European Commissioner for Health & Food Safety said, “Today’s settlement agreement guarantees the delivery of the remaining 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by AstraZeneca to the EU. While this week we reached the important milestone of 70% full vaccination of the EU’s adult population, there are significant differences in vaccination rates between our Member States, and the continued availability of vaccines, including AstraZeneca’s, remain crucial. And as the strongest supporter of global vaccine cooperation and solidarity, we will continue helping the rest of the world. Our aim is to share at least 200 million doses of vaccines through COVAX with low and middle-income countries until the end of this year. Vaccine solidarity is and remains our trademark.”
Taking it to twitter, the European Commission tweeted,
Today the EU and AstraZeneca have reached an agreement which will secure the delivery of the remaining COVID-19 vaccine doses to EU countries.
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) September 3, 2021
The agreement will end the pending litigation before the Brussels Court.
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In addition to the around 100 million doses which AstraZeneca has already delivered until end of Q2 of 2021, it will deliver another 65 million doses by end of Q3 and 75 million doses by end of Q4, taking the total to 135 million doses by the end of 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, it will deliver another 65 million doses.
AstraZeneca has also promised publicly a partial refund if its impending deliveries to E.U. countries are late. There will be a 10% rebate for a 1 month delay, 25% for 2 months and 40% for 3 months.
The Member States will be provided with regular delivery schedules and capped rebates will apply in the event of any delayed doses.
Earlier, the E.U. took AstraZeneca to Court after the latter said it could only deliver a fraction of the doses agreed for the first three months of 2021. This affected the initial roll-out across the E.U. The European Commission accused the company of breaking an August 2020 advanced purchase deal while AstraZeneca hit back arguing that the contract only required its “best effort” to deliver millions of vaccine doses on time.
At first, the row over the detailed legal contract wasn’t directly linked to Brexit, but soon became part of it, with the European Commission seeking, for a time, to override part of the deal on Northern Ireland because of its perceived unlawful treatment.
