The European Commission insisted on Tuesday (30 March) its vaccine contract with AstraZeneca supersedes all others.
“No other contract should supersede our contract,” said deputy chief European Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant at the daily briefing.
The comment was made following recent statements from UK’s health secretary Matt Hancock that London had an “exclusivity deal” with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm.
“They have a ‘best efforts’ contract and we have an exclusivity deal,” Hancock had told the Financial Times newspaper. The UK exclusivity suggests that the EU had signed an inferior deal.
Spinant refrained from commenting directly on the statement.
But she added that the EU’s contract with AstraZeneca says “there is nothing which would prevent the company from delivering the quantities that they committed to.”
Another commission spokesperson noted that the firm had also confirmed that it was not “under any obligation to other parties” when it comes to fulfilling the EU contract.
Nikolaj Nielsen