the agreed number of vaccine doses in both the first and second quarters this year, which has led to the delay in inoculation efforts across all 27 member-states.
Responding to EU’s lawsuit on Monday, AstraZeneca issued a statement in which the drug company said it is prepared to strongly defend itself in court.
“Following an unprecedented year of scientific discovery, very complex negotiations, and manufacturing challenges, our company is about to deliver almost 50m doses to European countries by the end of April, in line with our forecast,” the statement read.
“AstraZeneca has fully complied with the Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission and will strongly defend itself in court. We believe any litigation is without merit and we welcome this opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible.”
According to AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot, the delays were owing to low production at EU plants.
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU received only about 30 million doses of vaccines in the first three months of the year, a striking short-fall from the expected 120 million doses. Although 180 million doses were originally anticipated for the second quarter, this number is also expected to shrink to 70 million.
“AstraZeneca has unfortunately under-produced and under-delivered. And this painfully, of course, reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign,” von der Leyen said.
