It seems that the UK doesn't have a better deal with pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca than the EU.
However, this does not serve as an argument against preferential treatment.
Cambridge - Has the UK treaty stipulated that vaccines would be preferred to the country?
Newly emerged documents seem
to contradict
this thesis, according to
CNN
.
Previously, the assumption had been obvious.
Because while vaccine deliveries to the EU are severely delayed, the UK is currently not lacking in vaccine doses.
Pascal Soriot, the head of the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca, said that Great Britain had signed the contract earlier than the EU.
According to
CNN
, the document that has now emerged shows that this is not the case.
The contract for the delivery of the coronavirus * vaccine is dated August 28th - one day later than the contract with the EU.
Corona vaccine: Great Britain did not want to issue Astrazeneca contract
The document had apparently been partially blacked out and had been on the Internet unnoticed since the end of November.
The British government
sent the link to
CNN
after it had made a request for freedom of information.
The British government had previously refused to publish the contract several times, even calling it a “national security risk”.
In addition, a comparison with the EU treaty shows that both contain a “best effort” clause - that is, Astrazeneca has not confirmed any binding delivery dates.
All the company would have to do is in good conscience to adhere to the vaccine delivery schedule that recently hit the media * due to potential side effects.
Coronavirus vaccine: does the UK have a privilege to Astrazeneca?
But since the document that has now been published is a blackened version, it does not disprove the fact that Great Britain has contractually insured that it will receive preferential treatment for vaccine * deliveries.
According to
CNN
, Astrazeneca declined to comment.
In an interview with
LBC Radio
, however, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock made a statement that sounds strongly like such an agreement: “I didn't want to settle for a contract that would allow the Oxford vaccine to be delivered to the rest of the world before us deliver.
I insisted that we can protect the entire British population. ”
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital network.