EU vaccine delivery dates weren’t guaranteed, says AstraZeneca CEO

AstraZeneca is pushing back strongly against criticism from EU officials over delayed deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine.

In an interview with Italian news_copypaper Ia Rebublica on Tuesday, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the company had agreed to make its "best effort" to deliver the doses EU countries had ordered but was not contractually committed to a schedule.

Soriot also told the news_copypaper that countries such as the United Kingdom were quicker than the European Union to finalize their orders, meaning the drugmaker was unable to give the bloc an iron-clad commitment on its delivery schedule. The "head start" also gave AstraZeneca's operation in the United Kingdom more time to resolve the kind of supply chain issues that are now affecting EU deliveries, the CEO said.

"We've had also teething issues like this in the UK supply chain. But the UK contract was signed three months before the European vaccine deal. So, with the UK, we have had an extra three months to fix all the glitches we experienced. As for Europe, we are three months behind in fixing those glitches," he said.

The European Union said earlier this week that AstraZeneca "intends to supply considerably fewer doses in the coming weeks than agreed and announced." EU officials are worried that a slower rollout could threaten the bloc's recovery from pandemic, just as it was trying to assess the impact of Pfizer delivering fewer doses of the vaccine it developed with BioNTech than planned last week.

EU officials are now threatening to tighten controls on vaccine exports, and Italy has warned that it could take legal action. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen turned up the heat on the pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday, saying the bloc "means business."