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The debate between the European Commission and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and, indirectly, between the British government and the EU over coronavirus vaccines is intensifying. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said it was unacceptable that the Swedish-English company had announced that it would only be able to supply 25 percent of promised vaccines to the EU due to problems at its European factories and refused to compensate. the loss of their British. plant.
AstraZeneca claimed that it had entered into an agreement with the British government, which, after leaving the EU, was not involved in purchasing vaccines from the EU, to vaccinate the British population for the first time with vaccines produced in a British factory. The company reached an agreement with the British government three months before the European Commission, but Kyrakides said this argument was unacceptable:
“We reject the logic that we have to serve those who came first first. This may work for the butcher, but not for contracts, as with our pre-purchase agreement.”the commissioner said Wednesday. The European Union has signed a contract of 336 million euros with the company, for which it expects 400 million vaccines in return, the first 100 million before April.
AstraZeneca has assured the British government that it can produce two million vaccines a week to vaccinate the British population. And the British government insists that the company will only start shipping from the UK factory to other countries after at least 100 million doses of vaccine have been delivered for British use. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson even poured some oil on the fire on Wednesday when he said it would have been very unfortunate if the British government had accepted advice to join the EU buying vaccines. (Guardian)
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