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 AstraZeneca, which developed its shot with Oxford University, told
the EU on Friday that it could not meet the agreed supply targets
running up to the end of March, with an EU official telling Reuters
that meant a 60% cut to 31 million doses.
"We expect the company to find solutions and to exploit all possible
flexiblities to deliver swiftly," an EU Commission spokesman said,
adding the head of the EU executive Ursula von der Leyen had a call
earlier on Monday with AstraZeneca's chief Pascal Soriot to remind
him of the firm's commitments.
A second senior EU official said the bloc had a contractual right to
check the company's books to assess production and deliveries.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker has received an up-front payment of 336
million euros ($409 million) from the EU, a third EU official told
Reuters when the 27-nation bloc sealed a supply deal with
AstraZeneca in August for at least 300 million doses - the first
signed by the EU to secure COVID-19 shots..
Under advance purchase deals sealed during the pandemic, the EU
makes down payments to companies to secure doses, with the money
expected to be mostly used to expand production capacity.
"Initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to
reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply
chain," AstraZeneca said on Friday. The site in question is a
vaccine factory in Belgium run by the drugmaker's partner Novasep.
"The flimsy justification that there are difficulties in the EU
supply chain but not elsewhere does not hold water, as it is of
course no problem to get the vaccine from the UK to the continent,"
said EU lawmaker Peter Liese, who is from the same party as German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The EU Commission called a meeting with AstraZeneca after Friday's
announcement, and it is due to start at 1230 CET.
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 AstraZeneca was not immediately
available to comment on Monday.
The first EU official, who has been directly
involved in talks with AstraZeneca, said there
were no high expectations about the meeting in
which the company will be asked to better
explain the delays, although its outcome is
still unclear.
Earlier in January, Pfizer, which is currently
the largest supplier of COVID-19 vaccines to the
EU, announced delays of nearly a month to its
shipments, but hours later revised this to say
the delays would last only a week.
EU contracts with vaccine makers are confidential, but the EU
official did not rule out possible penalties for AstraZeneca, given
the large revision to its earlier commitments. However the source
did not elaborate on what could trigger the penalties. "We are not
there yet," the official added.
"AstraZeneca has been contractually obligated to produce since as
early as October and they are apparently delivering to other parts
of the world, including the UK without delay," Liese said.
AstraZeneca's vaccine is expected to be approved for use in the EU
on Jan. 29, with first deliveries expected from Feb. 15.
($1 = 0.8214 euros)
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; additional
reporting by Sabine Siebold and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing
by Pravin Char, Kirsten Donovan)
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