AstraZeneca says it had a positive meeting with the EU over the vaccine

MILAN (Reuters) – AstraZeneca had a positive meeting with the European Commission last week, the Anglo-Swedish company said after an Italian newspaper said the group had not responded to an EU letter of complaint about COVID vaccines. 19 within 20 days.

EU member states and the pharmaceutical company disagree with the delivery of shots after the group sent less than indicated to the EU than in the initial agreement.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said on Sunday that AstraZeneca had yet to react to a letter sent by the Commission on March 19 to complain about low-contract supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.

“We can confirm that we have responded to the Commission within the timeframe required for the dispute resolution mechanism and that our team had a very collaborative meeting with the Commission last week,” Matthew Kent said in an email. , director of World Relations with AstraZeneca. message.

Earlier Sunday, a spokesman for the European Commission confirmed that Brussels had written to AstraZeneca on March 19 to call it “a conflict resolution notice”, adding that this was a first step in dialogue for solve the problem.

“At this stage we are still waiting for the necessary elements … we are still in contact with AstraZeneca to ensure the timely delivery of a sufficient number of doses,” the spokesman had told Reuters, without detailing it.

Under the contract signed between the EU and the company, which is public, if a dispute arises, one of the parties will first notify the problem with a letter. Then, 20 days after the written notice, “they will meet and try to resolve the dispute through good faith negotiations.”

According to the contract signed on COVID-19 vaccines, the states of the European Union had planned to receive 120 million doses by the end of March from AstraZeneca, but the company had only supplied 30.12 million, according to Corriere.

The AstraZeneca spokesman did not comment on the supply data.

With the contagion still increasing in many European countries and vaccination campaigns hampering, some governments have shown growing irritation with the pharmaceutical group.

“Obviously, they (AstraZeneca) did not respect their commitments and, therefore, in a way, they were making fun of us Europeans,” French Minister for European Affairs Clement Beaune said on Sunday in the news channel. of LCI television.

Beaune said the EU’s letter to the Anglo-Swedish group could even lead to a legal battle.

“We sent a formal notice in recent days, it’s the start of a possible lawsuit if the company doesn’t fix things,” he said, adding that pressuring the company to speed up production in Europe seemed like an option. better compared to starting a legal process, which required time.