Curevac
Interestingly, the EC published their APA with Curevac, which includes the following:
"The participating Member States acknowledge that, in light of the uncertainties both with respect to the development of the Product and the accelerated establishment of sufficient manufacturing capacities, the delivery dates set out in this APA are the contractor's current best estimates only and subject to change. Due to possible delays in the authorisation, production and release of the Product, no Product or only reduced volumes of the Product may be available at the estimated delivery dates set out in this APA. In the case of delays to the anticipated availability of the Product, the contractor aims to allocate the doses of the Product fairly across the demand of doses, which the contractor has or will contractually commit to towards its present and future customers, as such doses become available."
As I understand it, Curevac is a long way from delivering any vaccine to the EU or the UK but the EC doesn't seem to be concerned about Curevac. It does seem strange that the EC is throwing their toys out of the pram over AZ, given that
- The EU have not yet approved the vaccine;
- The EC is not up to date with their advance payments to AZ;
- The French president and some politicians in Germany are claiming that the AZ vaccine is ineffective for people over 60.
As I understand it, AZ indicated that their EU deliveries would be affected due to problems at a Belgian plant run by a partner, Novasep - but the EC is not talking about those problems or how they might help to resolve them.
It appears that Italy and Latvia are suing AZ, presumably on the basis that EU member states are parties to the APA.