AstraZeneca has reached an agreement with the European Commission (EC) to settle the litigation over the delivery of 200 million pending Covid-19 vaccine doses.
The agreement will end the EC’s legal proceedings against AstraZeneca over vaccine shortages, initiated in April 2021, with the court hearings scheduled for this month.
Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will deliver 60 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate Vaxzevria by the end of the third quarter this year.
Also, the UK drugmaker will supply 75 million doses of Vaxzevria by the end of the fourth quarter this year and 65 million doses by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
The EU member states are expected to receive regular delivery schedules, with capped rebates applicable in case of any delayed vaccine doses.
AstraZeneca biopharmaceuticals business unit executive vice president Ruud Dobber said: “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.
“We are fully committed to manufacture Vaxzevria for Europe following the release for supply of more than 140 million doses to date at no profit. We are also looking forward to working with the European Commission in a joint effort to further support COVAX.”
AstraZeneca said that it has supplied more than 1.1 billion doses of vaccine to over 170 countries, including more than 129 countries through the COVAX Facility.
Vaxzevria was created by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company Vaccitech.
It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus, dubbed adenovirus.
The vaccine has received conditional marketing or emergency use authorisations in more than 90 countries across six continents.
In the clinical trials, Vaxzevria showed 100% efficacy against severe disease and hospitalisation after two doses and was generally well tolerated.
According to real-world evidence, the vaccine demonstrated more than 90% effectiveness against WHO-identified variants of concern.
