The future of vaccination in the European Union 1:46
London (CNN) -
The European Union is betting on the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine with a record deal to buy up to 1.8 billion doses, as legal proceedings began in its lawsuit against another major vaccine maker, AstraZeneca, in Brussels this Wednesday.
The agreement with Pfizer, which has yet to be formalized into an official contract, would be the world's largest single contract for a COVID-19 vaccine to date.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the landmark purchase on Friday during a visit to Pfizer's manufacturing plant in Puurs, Belgium, and said the vaccines would be supplied until 2023.
The deal was announced at a time when pressure is mounting on developed countries to stop buying more doses than their populations need, to ensure there are enough for the rest of the world.
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Talks
An account of the negotiations published Wednesday by The New York Times, based on interviews with von der Leyen, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, and other experts and officials, painted a picture of personal diplomacy between Pfizer leaders and of the EU.
It recounts how the two regularly exchanged text messages and calls for months until it became clear that Pfizer could supply the EU with many more doses than the 300 million it had already agreed to.
"Multiple world leaders contacted me, from presidents or prime ministers and kings, to general secretaries of organizations," Bourla told The New York Times, explaining that such conversations were not uncommon.
Von der Leyen described the difficulties he faced as a manager when it became clear that AstraZeneca was not going to meet its objectives.
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"I knew that increased deliveries would naturally start slowly at first, and therefore I also knew that the first quarter was going to be difficult," he said.
“I didn't expect it to be that tough, because we didn't include the possibility that AstraZeneca reduced deliveries by 75%.
That was a serious setback.
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Von der Leyen said the deal with Pfizer would include an initial amount of 900 million doses with the option of another 900 million, according to the New York Times report.
The European Commission did not immediately confirm that detail to CNN.
A spokesman for the European Commission declined to comment on the details that appear in the newspaper's report, but referred CNN to von der Leyen's remarks on Friday, “in which he addressed the importance of a productive relationship between the European Commission and the various stakeholders in our vaccine strategy. '
But his confidence seemed to have returned on Friday when he announced the deal with Pfizer, and he sought to repair the image of the European Union as a world leader in global health.
“[The contract] will ensure the doses needed to give booster shots to increase our immunity against the virus.
It will provide tailored vaccines to escape variants that no longer respond to vaccines.
And it should allow us to vaccinate, if necessary and safely, children and adolescents.
And it will consolidate Europe's leadership in mRNA technologies, ”he said, referring to the technology used in Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Conflict with AstraZeneca
The European Commission announced Monday that it was suing AstraZeneca for an alleged breach of its vaccine supply contract.
This is a dramatic escalation of the months-long dispute over delivery delays that hampered vaccine distribution across much of the continent.
The European Union initiates legal action against AstraZeneca for delays in the delivery of vaccines against covid-19
All 27 EU countries had commissioned AstraZeneca with 300 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, due to be delivered by the end of June, with the option to purchase another 100 million.
But deliveries of the vaccine have been marked by the lack of millions of doses.
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company has said it will deliver 100 million doses by the end of June, a third of what was initially set in its contract with the bloc.
Outside the Brussels court, a lawyer representing AstraZeneca, Hakim Boularbah, said: “The only statement I can make is that AstraZeneca deeply regrets the decision of the European Commission to take this action to court.
They hope that the dispute will be resolved as soon as possible.
The company has repeatedly rejected allegations of breach of contract.
Its CEO, Pascal Soriot, stressed in January that his contract is based on the best efforts of the company to meet the schedule and that the targets are not legally binding.
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The full, undrafted contract between the European Commission and AstraZeneca, first published by Italian broadcaster RAI, includes a clause that appears to protect the company from legal action for late delivery.
However, a court could decide whether the company actually made its "best reasonable efforts" to meet its objectives, as stated in the contract.
A lawyer for the Commission, Rafaël Jafferali, said outside the courtroom on Wednesday: 'We have brought our case to court.
We have explained the situation.
Our comments are for the court.
A court spokeswoman told CNN that the EU wants the company to catch up on its deliveries to the bloc.
The next hearing is scheduled for May 26.
The judge is expected to take between three and six weeks to pass judgment.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of troubles for AstraZeneca.
The company came under scrutiny for the way it presented data from its clinical trials in Europe in the early stages of the pandemic, and more recently in the United States.
Reports of a rare, but sometimes fatal, blood clotting disease following vaccine use in young adults, mostly women, has led some countries to restrict its use to only the oldest members of their families. populations.
AstraZeneca will release its first quarter financial results on Friday.
AstraZenecaPfizerEuropean Unioncovid-19 vaccine
