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IMHO the EU attitude is not affected by money per se but in achieving two aims,
1. Blame for the vaccine c***-up is shifted from them to AZN
2. To set an example of AZN for other companies that they have to be totally subservient to the wishes & dictats of the EU.
The European Commission will confront drugs giant AstraZeneca PLC in a Belgian court on Wednesday over coronavirus vaccine delivery shortfalls that hampered efforts to kickstart inoculations across the bloc.
Lawyers for both sides are due to appear before a judge in the French-speaking court in Brussels from 09:00 am (0700 GMT). Another hearing is scheduled for Friday, the court said.
The EU is suing the British-Swedish pharmaceutical group in a bid to force it to deliver 90 million more doses of its Covid-19 vaccine before July.
The deadline for the contract was set for mid-June, according to the Commission, and the EU says the company will face financial penalties if it does not meet this deadline.
AstraZeneca delivered only 30 million doses in the first quarter out of the 120 million it was contracted to supply. For the current quarter which runs until June 30, it plans to deliver only 70 million of the 180 million initially promised.
A Commission official close to the case told AFP this month that AstraZeneca was currently delivering doses at a rate of only 10 million per month, well below the planned pace.
The group denies having failed in its obligations and at the end of April denounced the lawsuit as "unfounded".
One lawyer for AstraZeneca claimed that the EU had been warned "as early as February" of the delays and expressed surprise that the bloc had waited at least two months to take the matter to court.
The EU is also accusing the pharmaceutical giant – which worked with Oxford University in the development of its vaccine – of having favoured the UK in its deliveries, even for jabs made by subcontractors on the continent.
AstraZeneca's French-Australian boss Pascal Soriot has argued that his company's contract with the EU binds it only to a "best reasonable efforts" clause.
But the European Commission says the rest of the contract shows greater legal responsibility than that, and EU diplomats and lawmakers have pointed out that the company has largely delivered promised doses to Britain, where it is headquartered.
The commission, which has been responsible for procuring vaccines for all of the bloc, initially intended to use the AstraZeneca jab as the main workhorse to power the EU's inoculation drive.
It has now switched to the more expensive BioNTech SE/Pfizer Inc vaccine as its mainstay.
In a hearing, Rafael Jafferali, one of the commission's lawyers, accused AstraZeneca of having "breached numerous obligations under the pre-order contract".
"This affects both the production and delivery of the vaccines," he said.
But Hakim Boularbah, AstraZeneca's lawyer, said the contracts contained "no obligation to use (production) sites".
"This may be what the commission wants, but it is not provided for in the contract," he said.
The row has eroded public confidence in the AstraZeneca jab, which also took a blow over worries of links to very rare blood clots in people who had received it.
In the EU, Denmark, as early as
AstraZeneca PLC on Wednesday announced it will sell USD7.00 billion in bonds to fund the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The six-tranche offering of fixed rate notes is expected to close on Friday, the company said. Coupons range from 0.3% for bonds maturing in 2023, to 3.0% for bonds maturing in 2051.
AstraZeneca said it expects to use the proceeds to fund part of the purchase price for Alexion, pay or refinance Alexion's debt, and for general corporate purposes.
The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical firm is buying Boston, US-based biotech Alexion in a deal worth USD39 billion, announced in December. On Tuesday, the UK's Competition & Markets Authority said it was investigating the takeover.
USD5.40 billion of the bonds will be redeemed if the deal is not completed by March 2022. The remaining USD1.60 billion tranche of 2024 bonds is not subject to mandatory redemption.
AstraZeneca's USD39 billion takeover of Massachusetts, US-based drug developer Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc faces a UK antitrust probe, the Competition & Markets Authority said on Tuesday.
The CMA will look into whether the deal creates a "substantial" reduction in competition in the UK.
The regulator is inviting comments on the transaction to aid with its assessment. The deadline for its phase one decision is July 21.
Earlier this month, both Alexion and AstraZeneca's shareholders voted in favour of the deal.
Cambridge-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca agreed to buy Alexion in December for USD39 billion to boost its work on immunology. The takeover has already been given the go-ahead by the US Federal Trade Commission in mid-April after competition clearances in Canada, Brazil and Russia, but Astra is still waiting on approval in the UK, EU and Japan.
AstraZeneca shares were 0.4% lower at 8,115.00 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. Alexion shares closed up 0.2% at USD178.04 each in New York on Monday, valuing the company at USD39.35 billion. The stock was unchanged during pre-market trading on Tuesday.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ministers-fear-forced-sale-of-glaxosmithkline-h08glwfb0
Somebody has fat fingers.
Extract:
The company said last month that it would apply for what is known as emergency use authorization for its vaccine by mid-April. It has recently told U.S. officials it might need until mid-May to finish its application for an FDA review, according to one of these people.
One especially time-consuming task has been compiling British data from almost four months of vaccinations in the U.K., including efficacy, virus-transmission and safety statistics, people close to the process say. That has added to the complexity of AstraZeneca’s submission and is expected to lengthen any FDA review.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/astrazeneca-struggles-with-data-needed-for-covid-19-vaccines-approval-11619721317?mod=hp_lead_pos7
(Alliance News) - Germany would support legal action against AstraZeneca PLC for under-delivering Covid-19 vaccine doses to the EU, but the priority now should be on securing the jabs, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday.
The European Commission is considering a lawsuit against the Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant for so far delivering just 31 million of the 120 million doses it had promised, according to EU diplomats.
Asked if he thought the lawsuit was a good idea, Spahn said: "If (the commission) decides to take legal action, then yes... but it's much more important to me that I get this vaccine."
Germany wants to "cooperate with AstraZeneca to get as many deliveries as possible as quickly as possible", he said, adding that legal issues are "not yet a priority in this phase of the pandemic".
EU diplomats said Thursday no final decision has been taken on legal action but the EU executive has informed member state envoys and wants them to confirm whether they would back a lawsuit.
"As you know, AstraZeneca is not delivering the number of doses which have been agreed upon in the contract... This is one of the reasons why we keep our options open together with member states to take any further steps," commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker said on Thursday.
One diplomat told AFP that "not all member states are in agreement" on taking the company to court, stressing that their aim was simply to have AstraZeneca deliver the doses it had promised in its contract.
Public confidence in the AstraZeneca jab has taken a blow after the European Medicines Agency, the bloc's regulator, said it was likely linked to a very rare form of blood clot affecting the brain.
The EMA and the commission have not changed their stance on a general use of AstraZeneca, saying its benefits outweigh the risks, but several EU countries have restricted its use to older citizens.
The EU, however, is now increasingly relying on the BioNTech SE/Pfizer Inc vaccine for its rollout, which has been accelerating since the end of March.
source: AFP
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-decision-yet-eu-legal-121914614.html
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3685044-eu-finalizes-deal-for-18b-doses-of-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine?mail_subject=azn-jnj-eu-finalizes-deal-for-1-8b-doses-of-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine&utm_campaign=rta-stock-news&utm_content=link-1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha
I wonder if the EU will publish details of their contract.