* Judge orders AstraZeneca to deliver doses by strict
deadlines
* EU had asked for more doses to be shipped earlier
* AstraZeneca may have breached contract in reserving doses
for UK
* Second legal case will establish whether contract was
breached
(Adds details from ruling)
By Francesco Guarascio and Alistair Smout
BRUSSELS/LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - The European Union on
Friday lost its bid to speed up deliveries of AstraZeneca's
COVID-19 vaccines, the first of its legal challenges
against the drugmaker that rocked the bloc as it scrambled to
shore up supplies.
AstraZeneca said the EU had lost its legal case, but
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the
court ruling supported its view that the Anglo-Swedish
pharmaceutical giant had failed to honour its commitments.
The row plunged the EU into crisis earlier this year as
states, under pressure to speed up vaccinations, scrambled for
shots. Brussels has since largely cut ties with AstraZeneca,
choosing not to buy any more of its vaccines for now.
The drugmaker had committed to do its best to deliver 300
million doses to the 27-nation bloc by the end of June, but
production delays led it to revise this to 100 million vaccines.
This delayed the EU's vaccination drive as the bloc had
initially bet on AstraZeneca to deliver the largest volume,
sparking a bitter row and EU legal action to get at least 120
million doses by the end of June.
However, the judge ruled that AstraZeneca must deliver only
80.2 million doses by a deadline of Sept. 27. The drugmaker said
it would "substantially exceed" that by the end of June.
The court said in a statement that AstraZeneca must deliver
15 million doses by July 26, another 20 million by Aug. 23 and a
further 15 million by Sept. 27, to reach a total of 50 million
doses, which are in addition to 30 million that had been given
to the EU when the legal case began.
Should it miss the deadlines in the ruling, AstraZeneca
would face a penalty of "10 euros ($11.8) per dose not
delivered", the judge said, less than the 10 euros per dose per
day fine the EU had sought in bringing its legal action.
AstraZeneca will remain bound to do its best to deliver 300
million doses to the EU, without a precise timetable, and a new
hearing is to be held in September when compliance with the
contract will be assessed again, the ruling said.
SERIOUS BREACH
An EU lawyer also said the judgment meant that as a proof of
best effort AstraZeneca will have to deliver COVID-19 vaccines
from a factory in Britain, if needed to meet its EU commitments.
The company had said it could not immediately deliver to the
EU doses from an Oxford BioMedica factory because it had to
supply Britain first.
The ruling said that AstraZeneca may have committed a
serious breach of the contract by reserving Oxford BioMedica's
output for the British market. However a final decision on this
will be made in a second legal case.
AstraZeneca said the court had found that the EU had no
exclusivity or right of priority over other parties.
"The judgment also acknowledged that the difficulties
experienced by AstraZeneca in this unprecedented situation had a
substantial impact on the delay," it said in a statement.
"AstraZeneca now looks forward to renewed collaboration with
the European Commission to help combat the pandemic in Europe."
The EU last month launched a second legal action against
AstraZeneca over an alleged breach of the supply contract, which
will continue after the summer. Friday's ruling was over whether
AstraZeneca had to speed up vaccine deliveries.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, Alistair Smout
in London, additional reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru;
Editing by David Evans, Catherine Evans, Louise Heavens,
Alexander Smith and Barbara Lewis)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
