EU sues AstraZeneca

[Supersonic 49,376]

AstraZeneca said it would “strongly defend itself in court” and highlighted its supply of 50m Covid vaccine doses to European countries as Brussels launched legal action against the pharmaceutical company over delivery shortfalls.

The Anglo-Swedish firm said it regretted the decision by the European commission to start a legal case over alleged breaches of an advance purchase agreement.

AstraZeneca was able to deliver only about a quarter of the expected 120m doses in the first quarter of this year because of production problems at a plant in Belgium, leading to angry accusations from Brussels.

Officials in the EU’s executive branch were particularly enraged by the refusal of the company to divert doses made in two plants in the UK. AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, had claimed he was contractually obliged to provide doses made in Oxford and Staffordshire to UK residents in the first instance.

Announcing on Monday its decision to take the company to court, a commission spokesman said the legal claim had been made as “some terms of the contract have not been respected and the company has not been in the position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure timely delivery of doses.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/26/eu-starts-legal-action-against-astrazeneca-over-vaccine-shortfalls

[Benji 20,113]

Yeah it’s totally AstraZeneca’s fault they signed a weaker contract to other countries and also signed it later  Maybe if the EU’s members didn’t spend months rubbishing the vaccine and let it sit around going unused other people might feel a bit of pity for them.

I also love a meeting on helping India takes two weeks to happen but starting court procedures against a company helping India takes precedent  Ursula’s EU is a mess.

[River 127,558]

Like this is what important now, like wait a bit until things gets better..

EU has been dealing with the vaccines situation just wrong

[ShayCristoforo 10,607]

I'd say "don't bite the hand that feeds you"

But at this point, is it the pharma feeding the government? The other way around?

Either way, that's how sue c's it. 

[Joshie S 6,556]

me sitting here reading this, having had the astrazeneca vaccine 3 weeks ago

[Andreu 37,216]

as they should yes ma'am

[Adrenaliner 3,809]

Well they clearly broke the contract so it is valid 

[Kadikaado 4,302]

I usually support the oposite site to the multi-billionaire companies, but this is an extraordinary situation we are living. Astrazeneca will need to open new "factories" to produce more vaccines, the Corona virus will keep mutating and we will need a different vaccina for new strains every year, anyway.

[Chris Thomason 1,036]

Honestly AZ should be suing the EU for dragging their name through the mud. Do the EU actually want that vaccine or not? They can't make up their mind. One second it's "ineffective" next minute they are blocking it from leaving the EU to places like Australia and the UK, the next its dangerous and now they are unhappy they aren't getting it. They've caused so much damage to public opinion of vaccines for no substantial reason. If they wanted the vaccine sooner maybe they shouldn't have signed contracts months later than everyone else. The EU are just projecting their failures instead of actually just admitting they messed up.

[Fuffy 1,049]

Given how a good chunk of EU countries have restrictions on this vaccine because of blood clot fears, I wonder what they'd actually do with these vaccines if they did arrive on time?

It looks very messy at best.

[Summerboi14 807]

If the contract says that they have to deliver xxx vacancies and deliver less they can sue them legally.

[joaomggd 124]

15 minutes ago, Gogo Yubari said:

Given how a good chunk of EU countries have restrictions on this vaccine because of blood clot fears, I wonder what they'd actually do with these vaccines if they did arrive on time?

It looks very messy at best.

If they would've arrived on time the noise about the clots wouldn't have been as loud, it felt very politically motivated at the beginning. Especially since all the vaccines can cause the same clots, in slightly different incidence percentages, but no one was mentioning that, at least where i live (Portugal)

[djparky 267]

35 minutes ago, BloodyMary08 said:

If the contract says that they have to deliver xxx vacancies and deliver less they can sue them legally.

It depends what it says..if the contract uses words like " reasonable endeavours" then the EU is not in a good position. 

[Benji 20,113]

47 minutes ago, BloodyMary08 said:

If the contract says that they have to deliver xxx vacancies and deliver less they can sue them legally.

The language of the EU contract gives flexibility for AstraZeneca to prioritise and fulfil other contracts.  The EU came to the table late, tried to negotiate on costs with a company that was offering the vaccine at cost (which is pretty abhorrent) and is then shocked to find out other countries negotiated a better deal than them.  The only people to blame here are the EU and they’re trying to shift that blame to anyone but themselves.