Last checked at 
* Settlement brings doses delivered to 300 million as agreed
* Agreement will also end pending litigation in Brussels
* Capped rebates on vaccine will apply if doses are delayed
* Doses will go to EU-laggards in uptake ranking, COVAX
facility
(Adds details on vaccine use, initial contract)
By Pushkala Aripaka and Ludwig Burger
Sept 3 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca and the European
Commission have reached a settlement on the delivery of 200
million pending COVID-19 vaccine doses by the drugmaker, ending
a row about shortages that had weighed on the company and the
region's vaccination campaign.
The dispute plunged the European Union into crisis earlier
this year as states, under pressure to speed up vaccinations,
scrambled for shots. It also caused a public relations crisis
for AstraZeneca, which is led by Frenchman Pascal Soriot.
Having reduced its initial reliance on the Anglo-Swedish
drugmaker, Brussels said parts of the volumes committed under
the deal would be transferred outside the EU to ease global
vaccine inequality. The bloc's vaccine supplies now come mainly
from Pfizer/BioNTech .
As part of Friday's settlement https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2021/astrazeneca-and-european-commission-reach-settlement-agreement-over-vaccine-supply-ending-litigation.html,
AstraZeneca has committed to deliver 60 million doses of its
vaccine, Vaxzevria, by the end of the third quarter this year,
75 million by the end of the fourth quarter and 65 million by
the end of the first quarter of 2022.
When including deliveries already made, that schedule maps
out the honouring of a 300 million dose bulk purchasing contract
struck about a year ago between the company and the EU, after
months of conflict over delays.
The European Commission launched legal action against
AstraZeneca in April https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-sues-astrazeneca-over-delayed-deliveries-covid-19-vaccine-2021-04-26
for not respecting that contract and for not having a
"reliable" plan to ensure timely deliveries.
The EU's executive body said https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_4561
that under the new agreement, member states would be provided
with regular delivery schedules and if there were any delayed
doses, capped rebates would be applied. EU members with low
inoculation rates would be prioritised, it added.
VACCINATION RATES
"There are significant differences in vaccination rates
between our member states, and the continued availability of
vaccines, including AstraZeneca's, remain crucial," said EU
Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
She also said some deliveries under the settlement would go
to lower-income countries outside the EU.
"We will continue helping the rest of the world. Our aim is
to share at least 200 million doses of vaccines through COVAX
with low and middle-income countries until the end of this
year," she said, referring to vaccine-sharing facility run by
the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the World Health Organization.
The European Commission has caught up with its campaign
schedule, saying this week that 70% of the European Union's
adult population had been fully vaccinated, hitting a target set
at the beginning of the year.
The settlement allows for distribution while the
highly-contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is causing a
spike in cases and vaccines are being studied for longevity of
protection.
The EU's vaccine needs have for the most part been served by
Pfizer and BioNTech because the partners have managed to ramp up
production for ample supplies. Concerns over very rare cases of
serious blood clotting linked to the Astra shot, co-developed
with Oxford University, have weighed on demand for it.
Use of the Astra shot in the region fell further when
Germany decided in July that recipients of an initial Astra shot
would complete their two-shot regimen with a dose of Pfizer or
Moderna.
"I'm very pleased that we have been able to reach a common
understanding which allows us to move forward and work in
collaboration with the European Commission to help overcome the
pandemic," said AstraZeneca senior executive Ruud Dobber.
About 92 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine have been
distributed to EU member states so far, according to the
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. That is far
below the 437 million doses delivered by Pfizer/BioNTech but
ahead of the 77 million Moderna vaccine doses
delivered.
Astra said it had released more than 140 million doses to
date at no profit to the EU, including doses that have yet to be
delivered to member states and EU consignments to COVAX or to
other non-EU states.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru, Keith Weir in
London and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Shounak
Dasgupta, Edmund Blair and David Evans)
