Astra Zeneca (AZN) and European Commission (EC) contractual relationship

EU presses AstraZeneca to abide by contract on dose delivery

MICHAEL PEEL — BRUSSELS ANNA GROSS — LONDON

The European Commission has piled pressure on AstraZeneca over its planned cut to first-quarter vaccine dose deliveries, with emergency talks between the two sides set for last night.

Stella Kyriakides, EU health commissioner, told member states yesterday that AstraZeneca’s proposed new supply schedule was “not acceptable” and its explanations for the problems had “not been satisfactory”.

The criticism highlights anger in the EU over the AstraZeneca supply reduction announcement on Friday, which comes with the bloc already lagging behind the US and UK in Covid-19 vaccine rollout. The company said its first-quarter deliveries could be more than 50 per cent lower than the up to 100m shots the bloc had expected, EU officials said.

AstraZeneca has said there is no “scheduled delay” to shipments, but “initial volumes” will be lower than anticipated due to reduced yields at a production site in the EU supply chain.

“The European Union wants to know exactly which doses have been produced [and] where by AstraZeneca, so far, and if, or to whom, they have been delivered.” Ms Kyriakides said yesterday. “The answers of the company have not been satisfactory so far. And that’s why a second meeting is scheduled for tonight.”

Ursula von der Leyen, commission president, had earlier held talks with Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, to urge the company to speed up deliveries. Ms von der Leyen “made it clear” to Mr Soriot that she “expects AstraZeneca to deliver on the contractual arrangements” in the agreement by the EU to buy up to 400m doses, the commission said.

“She reminded Mr Soriot that the EU has invested significant amounts in the company upfront, precisely to ensure that production is ramped up even before the conditional market authorisation is delivered by the European Medicines Agency,” it said, referring to EU regulatory approval of the vaccine, which could come as soon as Friday.

“Of course production issues can appear with a complex vaccine, but we expect the company to find solutions and exploit all possible flexibilities to deliver swiftly.”

AstraZeneca said it was doing “everything it can” to deliver the doses as soon as possible and was “doing everything it can to bring its vaccine to millions of Europeans as soon as possible”.

The AstraZeneca jab, made in collaboration with Oxford university, was the first vaccine to be pre-ordered by the European bloc. The 400m doses of the two-shot course would cover almost half the region’s 446m population.

The commission also plans to tighten its scrutiny of exports of vaccines produced in the EU to countries outside the bloc. Ms Kyriakides said the commission had proposed to force companies to pre-notify it of plans for such shipments, in a sign of the short-term pressure on supplies of jabs.

While the UK has given more than 10 doses per 100 residents and the US 6.6 per 100, the EU has yet to reach two doses per 100 residents, according to FT data.