The European Commission said, on Tuesday 11 May, through its Health spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker, that it expects the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to deliver 90 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the second quarter.
This request is supported by the Commission in the context of the legal action launched against AstraZeneca at the end of April (see EUROPE 12706/11).
In addition to this first legal action, a legal action on the merits was opened on Tuesday, “so that a judge can also rule on the rights and obligations of the parties, verify who is right, whether there has indeed been a breach or non-compliance with the pre-purchase contract, in a level of detail that the judge in summary proceedings will not be able to apply”, Mr De Keersmaecker said.
The Commission’s objective in these two procedures is in no way to obtain “financial compensation”, he assured.
Pfizer/BioNTech. On the same day, the Commission informed the 27 ministers responsible for European affairs that a new order for 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for the period 2021-2023 had been concluded which was confirmed over the weekend (see EUROPE 12716/2).
“This is a step forward that has been very well received by the Member States”, said the Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, after the meeting.
She added that EU health ministers would hold an informal meeting on 20 May to discuss the 2022 vaccine strategy. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)