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The European Union has not yet extended its orders for corona vaccine doses from AstraZeneca beyond the month of June.
It is not yet clear whether there will be further orders afterwards, said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton to the radio station France Inter / France Info.
However, this does not necessarily mean the end of business between the EU and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
The EU started the contract extensions with the US pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer and its Mainz partner Biontech, but "there will be others," Breton said.
"We started Pfizer because they are working on the second phase, the second-generation vaccines," he added.
The point is to "position yourself in front of the others" when continuing the vaccination program.
When asked about the future of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine, French President Emmanuel Macron said in Strasbourg that AstraZeneca would "help us put the crisis behind us".
With regard to the effectiveness against virus mutants, however, it shows "that other vaccines are more effective today."
The AstraZeneca vaccine had suffered massive delivery delays in the past few months.
Anger in the EU was caused by the fact that AstraZeneca's deliveries to Great Britain were apparently not restricted at the same time.
AstraZeneca had delivered only 30 million instead of the agreed 120 million vaccine doses to the EU in the first quarter, citing production problems.
The EU accuses the manufacturer of breach of contract and takes legal action against the company.
The corona vaccine of the group had also hit the headlines in the past few weeks because of rare serious side effects.
Since then, several EU member states have only recommended vaccinations with the vaccine for certain age groups.
The European Union signed a contract with Biontech and Pfizer on Saturday for the delivery of up to 1.8 billion more corona vaccine doses.
ssu / AFP
