The EU has released an edited copy of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreement



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A copy of the document was published following a dispute over a delay in the delivery of vaccine doses. Many details about the price of the vaccine have been withheld. The vaccine is expected to sell at a much higher price in the Community than in the UK where AstraZeneca is located.

The text was published after consultations with the vaccine manufacturer in Brussels. You can find it here.

“It just came to our notice then. We are talking to a company whose parts of the contract should be painted black,” Ursula von der Leyen, director of the European Commission, told Deutschlandfunk, a German broadcaster, on Friday.

“Scanpix” nuotr./Ursula von der Leyen

Earlier this week, the EU criticized AstraZeneca for failing to deliver € 80 million to the Community. doses of the drug, as Brussels expected, and only 31 million will be sold. dose.

AstraZeneca has warned that deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine will be delayed, although the company has made a “clear” commitment, according to U. von der Leyen.

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said there were production disruptions at the company’s plants in the EU, which were operated by subcontractors. He added that the contract only stipulates that the company will do everything possible to deliver the scheduled number of doses.

But von der Leyen, after angry comments from a number of EU officials this week, said on Friday that the deal obliges Swedish and British pharmaceutical giants to administer a set number of vaccine doses per quarter.

“The condition of ‘doing everything possible’ lasted until it was clear if they would develop the vaccine. That time has passed. The vaccine said yes,” said the president of the European Commission.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) should issue a conditional marketing authorization for AstraZeneca later on Friday, possibly restricting its use to younger groups, fearing that the drug’s effects on the elderly have not been thoroughly studied.

An agreement was reached with AstraZeneca in advance to distribute the vaccine to the Community as soon as possible due to concerns about the spread of new, more contagious coronavirus strains.



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