The contract between the EU commission and the vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca is online. This gives the public more clarity about what exactly is in the contract.
Unfortunately, the crucial figures about the exact delivery quantities have been blacked out. I suppose this was under pressure from the company.
But I am now even more certain than before that the commission’s statement that AstraZeneca has committed itself to deliver 80m doses of vaccine in the first quarter is correct.
You can see that just by the fact that the company itself announced last week that it would deliver 31m instead of 80m. If the 80m aren’t in the contract, where else do they come from?
I am confident that the publication of the contract, but above all the pressure on the company, will now lead to constructive discussions.
A representative from AstraZeneca has once again clearly confirmed to me that, instead of one delivery in February as planned last week, they will now make three deliveries in February and that the first will take place one week after approval and not two weeks as planned after admission.
That is the least that can be expected, because the company BioNTech / Pfizer received approval on December 21st and delivered the vaccine immediately, so that the vaccination could start on the 27th despite the Christmas holidays.
I appeal to AstraZeneca to deliver the agreed quantities. If there are problems, one must at least make sure that there is fair trade everywhere and that the cuts are not unilaterally at the expense of the EU.
In the end we will not be able to get 80m vaccine doses, but it must be a lot more than the 31m initially announced.
