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“We want to publish the contract today and we are in discussions with the company” about the parts of the text that should be kept confidential for confidentiality reasons, Von der Leyen said in an interview this morning on German radio Deutschlandfunk.
The publication of the contract signed with AstraZeneca comes in the middle of an ‘arm fight’ between the EU and the British pharmaceutical company, which now says it cannot supply the doses of vaccines contracted with Brussels until March, and on the day when the ” green light “from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use in Europe.
“AstraZeneca will do everything possible to manufacture the European initial doses within the European Union”, says the previous purchase contract signed last August between the community executive and the pharmaceutical company.
In question is the announcement made by AstraZeneca that it will deliver to the European Union (EU) less doses than those agreed for the first quarter of 2021, a figure that appears in the contract and that, even so, was omitted by the European Commission in the document shown to the press today.
The contract states that “if AstraZeneca does not carry out its intention to manufacture European initial doses and / or optional doses under this agreement in the EU, the Commission or participating Member States may present AstraZeneca customized organizations within the EU capable of manufacturing vaccines dose “.
In that case, “AstraZeneca will use its best reasonable efforts to conclude contracts with these proposed custom manufacturing organizations to increase available manufacturing capacity within the EU”, committing the parties to a “mutually acceptable solution”, read yes.
Still, “the contract published today contains missing parts related to confidential information, such as details of invoices,” explains the institution.
The community executive called for transparency and welcomed the fact that the company decided to authorize this disclosure, according to commission spokesman Eric Mamer.
“Transparency and accountability are important to help build the trust of European citizens and ensure that they can trust the efficacy and safety of vaccines purchased at EU level,” concludes Brussels.
The agreement signed in August provided for the delivery of 300 million doses to the European Union after approval by the European Medicines Agency – which is expected to happen this afternoon – with the option of another 100 million doses.
Last week, AstraZeneca announced that it intends to deliver considerably lower doses than those agreed with the EU, due to alleged production capacity problems, which provoked the outrage of the community executive, which threatens to resort to legal channels.
AstraZeneca talks about production delays in the Netherlands and Belgium. Pharmaceutical CEO Pascal Soriot maintains that the contract stipulates that the company will make the “best offer” to meet the EU’s request, without forcing the company to a specific schedule, which is being contested by the European Union.
This was the first contract signed by Brussels with a pharmaceutical company to buy vaccines against covid-19 out of a total of eight already existing.
Also this afternoon, the Commission will present a new transparency mechanism with which it wants to evaluate and authorize the export of vaccines produced in the European Union to other countries.
As well as the EU, AstraZeneca is one of the largest providers of COVID-19 vaccines in the UK (former member state) and the US, for example.
c / The day after tomorrow
