The European Union has tabled a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical outfit AstraZeneca following the latter’s underperformance in delivering COVID-19 vaccines.
A news report filed by AFP revealed the EU bloc was suing the drug maker for failing to deliver the vaccines as per the stipulations in the contract, not to mention the efficacy hitches that have marred the administration process.
Last week on Wednesday, Politico reported that the regional bloc was readying a legal suit against the company, although the move faced resistance from five European countries, among them Germany and France. The opposers of the idea argued the deadline given was short, and that the suit would not in any way translate into the production of more doses as had been agreed in the contract.
European countries were banking on the AstraZeneca vaccine to tame the marauding coronavirus that brought various developed economies to a standstill and put their healthcare system to massive strain and test.
The drug maker has only delivered 30 million doses of the vaccine, while the contract stipulated that it was supposed to deliver 100 million doses within that period. Wholesomely, the company ought to deliver 300 million doses to the EU countries as per the contract. But it argues that it will be able to bridge the 70 million dose gap within the shortest foreseeable future. As of last week, the media reported that the bloc was considering launching the suit in a Belgian court.
It is not the first tribulation to befall the drug maker. Earlier this year, a number of EU countries stopped inoculating under 60 populations with AstraZeneca after they noted queer and rare cases of deadly blood clots.
These incidences were however rubbished with the pharmaceutical company as unproven. The World Health Organization (WHO) also voiced an assurance telling the countries that had stocked the doses to continue using them saying the ‘benefits outweighed the risks.’