Contract between EU and AstraZeneca published

"The Commission welcomes the company's commitment towards more transparency in its participation in the rollout of the EU Vaccines Strategy," the EU executive said in a statement on Friday.

Transparency and accountability are important to help build the trust of European citizens and to make sure that they can rely on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines purchased at the EU level.

The Commission said it hopes to be able to publish all contracts under the Advance Purchase Agreements in the near future.

The contract published today contains redacted parts pertaining to confidential information such as details of invoices. The AstraZeneca contract is the second one to be published, after CureVac has agreed to publish the Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission.

The contract the European Commission negotiated together with the EU Member States was approved on 14 August and entered into force on 27 August. It is financed by the Emergency Support Instrument.

Through the contract, all Member States are able to purchase 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with an option for a further 100 million doses, to be distributed on a population-based pro-rata basis. The contract also allows the Member States to donate their vaccine doses to lower and middle income countries or to re-direct them to other European countries.

The Commission has been in talks with AstraZeneca after the company announced last Friday that due to production probems at a factory in Belgium deliveries of its vaccine developed jointly with Oxford University to EU member stats will suffer a delay.  

In the United Kingdom, where AstraZeneca is based, the company is now manufacturing its vaccine at two factories that appear to be operating at full tilt. The U.K. is currently receiving all of its expected deliveries from those plants after initial hiccups that last month had the company shipping vaccines to Britain that were manufactured at factories in the Netherlands and Germany. 

The Commission slammed the company, arguing AstraZeneca had made clear commitments to Brussels while also aware of its obligations to the U.K. and dismissed the vague assertions of production problems at a factory in Belgium as an insufficient excuse for a shortfall they said would leave the EU with just 25% of its expected vaccine deliveries in the first quarter.  

The EU is planning to impose new export restrictions, which AstraZeneca expressed concerns about, while reiterating its plan to deliver vaccine as quickly as possible.

The Commission said it will seek to impose a mechanism today by which EU countries will be able to block vaccine exports if the EU's own purchase orders have not yet been filled. Under the scheme, the EU will instruct its customs authorities to block vaccine exports unless they come with a prior authorization. That will allow the EU to prioritize shipments to its own countries before authorizing exports. Read more about this at Politico.

The publication of the contract with AstraZeneca comes after CEO Pascal Soriot revealed a number of confidential details in the text during an interview on Tuesday with la Repubblica.

You find the contract here.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to make a decision on the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine today. 

Cover photo: Getty Images