EU prepares legal action against AstraZeneca over vaccine delivery shortages – By Silvia Amaro (CNBC) / April 22 2021
- The EU and the pharmaceutical giant have been at odds on several different occasions this year.
- When contacted by CNBC Thursday, a spokesperson for European Commission said: “What matters is that we ensure the delivery of a sufficient number of doses in line with the company’s earlier commitments.”
LONDON — The European Union is preparing legal action against AstraZeneca over shortfalls in deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The EU and the pharmaceutical giant have been at odds on several different occasions this year. Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca said it could not deliver as many vaccines as the bloc was counting on, both during the first quarter and the second quarter. This has delayed the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines across the 27 EU nations.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, told the 27 European ambassadors at a meeting on Wednesday that it was considering legal action against AstraZeneca for these delivery issues, four EU officials, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, told CNBC Thursday. Politico first reported the commission’s plan late Wednesday.
“The commission wants to move fast. It is a matter of days,” one of the officials told CNBC via telephone, adding that there had been “large support” from the ambassadors for the legal action.
