Ursula von der Leyen has said it is “crystal clear” that AstraZeneca is bound by its contract to deliver coronavirus vaccine doses produced in the UK to the EU to make up for a shortfall in production in Belgium.
As AstraZeneca agreed to publish a redacted version of its contract with the European commission on Friday, the commission’s president dismissed the arguments of AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, that the British government had a first claim on doses produced in Oxford and Staffordshire.
Von der Leyen said the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company was legally obliged to use all four plants named in its contract – two in the UK, one in Belgium and a fourth in the Netherlands – to deliver on its promised order.
The European commission has paid €336m (£298m) for 400m doses, the first 100m of which were due to be delivered in the first quarter of this year.
Last week the company enraged officials by announcing that only 25% of the deliveries would be possible owing to production problems at the Belgian plant, and that it could not make good on the shortages by importing from the UK.
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