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EU seeks court order for AstraZeneca to supply vaccine doses
![EU seeks court order for AstraZeneca to supply vaccine doses]()
Commission tells judge of ‘urgent need’ for the shots after drugmaker fails to meet delivery schedule EU seeks court order for AstraZeneca to supply vaccine doses
Commission tells judge of ‘urgent need’ for the shots after drugmaker fails to meet delivery schedule
EU's court case over AstraZeneca vaccine delivery delays opens.
A Belgian judge has begun hearing an urgent European Commission request for a court order requiring AstraZeneca to deliver millions more vaccines to the bloc, in a case that may reflect the EU’s anger more than its need for doses.
The court, which will examine in a later case whether the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals company broke its contract with the EU, heard the commission argue on Wednesday that an “urgent need” for the shots warranted an emergency order.
AstraZeneca supplied only 30m of the 120m Covid-19 vaccine doses it was scheduled to deliver to the bloc by the end of March, and the commission says the company is on course to deliver 70m of a promised 180m in the second quarter.
The commission’s lawyer, Rafaël Jafferali, told the court the company now expected to deliver the full 300m doses in its contract by the end of December, but added: “With a six-month delay, it’s obviously a failure.”
