The European Union and UK-based drugs giant AstraZeneca settled their dispute over a shortfall in coronavirus vaccine supplies on Friday, agreeing an extended delivery schedule.
The European Commission went to court after the firm failed to deliver all of a promised 300 million doses by June 2021, but AstraZeneca will now have until the end of March next year to make up the number.
The agreement ends the legal battle and AstraZeneca will not face any fines or penalty payments -- unless it falls short of its new target dates.
"I'm very pleased that we have been able to reach a common understanding which allows us to move forward and work in collaboration with the European Commission to help overcome the pandemic," said AstraZeneca's Ruud Dobber.
Brussels was furious when the British-Swedish pharmaceutical outfit fell far short of its promises, undermining the early stages of the EU's Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Officials accused AstraZeneca of prioritising UK vaccine deliveries over the EU order and European Commission lawyers went to court to demand deliveries or see huge daily fines imposed for any ongoing shortfall.
But the firm argued that its contract with the bloc only obliged it to make "best efforts" to meet its delivery target, and that production bottlenecks in its European plants had been unavoidable.
In an interim ruling pending the final settlement of the case, the Brussels court imposed a new delivery schedule on AstraZeneca.
"Today's settlement agreement guarantees the delivery of the remaining 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by AstraZeneca to the EU," European health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement. ...
