(Writes through)
By Francesco Guarascio
BRUSSELS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The European Union is asking
AstraZeneca to publish the contract it signed with the
bloc on COVID-19 vaccine supplies, an EU official said on
Wednesday, in an escalation of the row over delivery delays.
The company pulled out of a meeting with the European Union
scheduled for Wednesday, the official said.
In an interview with newspapers on Tuesday, AstraZeneca CEO
Pascal Soriot said the EU contract was based on a best-effort
clause and did not commit the company to a specific timetable
for deliveries.
Vaccine rollouts in the European Union have been slow
compared with countries in some other regions, especially former
EU member Britain, and fraught with problems, not least
interruptions to supply chains.
Soriot's interview followed the company's announcement of a
cut in supplies to the EU in the first quarter, which an EU
official told Reuters last week amounted to a 60% reduction to
31 million doses caused by production issues at a factory in
Belgium.
The EU contract with AstraZeneca is an advance purchase
agreement for the supply of at least 300 million doses provided
that the vaccine is approved as safe and effective.
The EU official said on Wednesday that details revealed by
Soriot on production capacity and best-effort clause were
confidential.
The official added that the best-effort clause was standard
in contracts with manufacturers of products that are in
development.
"Best effort is a completely standard clause when you are
signing a contract with a company for a product that does not
yet exist," the official said. "Obviously you cannot put a
completely legal obligation" under these conditions.
The official said that best effort meant that the company
had to show an "overall" effort to develop and deliver vaccines.
AstraZeneca said in a statement on Wednesday: "Each supply
chain was developed with input and investment from specific
countries or international organisations based on the supply
agreements, including our agreement with the European
Commission.
"As each supply chain has been set up to meet the needs of a
specific agreement, the vaccine produced from any supply chain
is dedicated to the relevant countries or regions and makes use
of local manufacturing wherever possible."
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Jason Neely and
Nick Macfie)