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MILAN, April 11 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca has yet to
react to a letter sent by the European Commission to complain
over below-contract supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, Italian daily
Corriere della Sera said, adding the Anglo-Swedish group missed
a deadline indicated by Brussels.
The European Union member states and the pharmaceutical
company are at odds over the delivery of the shots after the
group shipped to the block less than indicated in the initial
agreement.
"AstraZeneca has breached and continues to breach its
contractual obligations on the production and supply of the
initial 300 million doses for Europe," EU Head of Health and
Food Safety DG Sandra Gallina said in a letter sent to the
company on March 19, according to Corriere.
The Italian daily said that Brussels had asked AstraZeneca
to "remedy the material breaches of contract within 20 days of
the letter", but added that the deadline expired two days ago
without any reaction from the company.
AstraZeneca has not replied to a request for comment from
Reuters.
A spokesman for the European Commission confirmed that
Brussels on March 19 sent a written message to AstraZeneca,
calling it "a notice for dispute settlement", adding this was a
first step to engage in an dialogue to resolve the issue.
"At this stage we are still waiting for the necessary
elements ... we remain in contact with AstraZeneca to ensure
timely delivery of a sufficient number of doses," the spokesman
told Reuters, without elaborating.
According the contract signed between EU and the company,
which is public, if a dispute arises one of the parties shall
first notify the problem with a letter. Then, after 20 days from
the written notice, they "shall meet and attempt to resolve the
dispute by good faith negotiations".
Under the contract signed on COVID-19 vaccines, the European
Union states had expected to receive 120 million doses by the
end of March from AstraZeneca, but the company had supplied only
30.12 million doses, Corriere said.
With contagion still rising in many European countries and
vaccination campaigns hitting hurdles, some governments are
shown increasing irritation against the pharma group.
"Manifestly, they (AstraZeneca) did not honour their
commitments and thus, in a certain way, they were mocking us
Europeans," France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune
said on Sunday, speaking to LCI television news channel.
Beaune said that the EU letter to the Anglo-Swedish group
could even lead to a battle in court.
"We sent a formal notice in recent days, it is the beginning
of a possible judicial procedure if the company doesn't fix
things," he said, adding that putting pressure on the company to
accelerate production in Europe appeared to be a better option
compared with starting a legal process, which would take time.
(Reporting by Francesca Landini; additional reporting by Kate
Abnett in Brussels and Richard Lough in Paris; editing by David
Evans)
