The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has still not responded to complaints from the European Commission about problems in the delivery of coronavirus vaccines. The group had until a few days ago to respond, but missed the deadline.
The European Union and AstraZeneca have been arguing for some time about late deliveries and under-deliveries. AstraZeneca has violated and continues to violate its contractual obligations on production and delivery of 300 million doses for Europe, the European Commission informed the company in mid-March. Europe asked AstraZeneca to repair the contract breaches within twenty days of the letter. The deadline passed two days ago without any response from the company, reports the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
According to a spokesman for the European Commission, the letter, sent on 19 March, was a first step “to a dialogue to solve the problem”, it sounds in a response to Reuters news agency.
“At this stage, we are still waiting for the necessary elements. We remain in contact with AstraZeneca to ensure a timely delivery of sufficient doses.”
AstraZeneca has not yet responded to the news. The European Union expected 120 million doses by the end of March. But AstraZeneca only delivered just over 30 million, according to Corriere della Sera.
On Friday it was announced that AstraZeneca also delivered half less doses this week than expected to the European member states. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been in turmoil for weeks because it may cause blood clots after vaccination. The European watchdog EMA states that there is probably a link between the vaccine and an extremely rare but dangerous combination of blood complaints. In Belgium, AstraZeneca is currently only administered to people over 56.
