Now AstraZeneca Sends Legal Notice To Serum Institute Over Vaccine Delays: Here's What Happened

British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca which has been going through a rough patch over its COVID-19 vaccine's safety concerns and anger in the EU over failing to fulfil its promise has sent a legal notice to Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) over its delay in shipments.

The SII, which is the world's largest vaccine maker had entered into a deal with AstraZeneca to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine in India under the brand name Covishield.

AFP

This was to be sold in India and exported to other countries around the world.

What happened?

SII's CEO Adar Poonawalla had recently said that the company has so far delivered more than 100 million doses of the vaccine to the Indian government and more than 60 million jabs have been exported.

But according to the legal notice by AstraZeneca, Serum institute delayed shipment of vaccines to the UK and later didn¡¯t meet its obligations to other countries as a part of the Covax programme.

BCCL

In March, AstraZeneca had announced supply to 142 countries underway as part of the unprecedented effort to bring broad and equitable access to the vaccine.

COVAX supplier

AstraZeneca with its partner Serum Institute of India will be the biggest initial supplier to COVAX, the pharma company had announced.

The first of many millions of doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine have begun arriving in low and middle-income countries across the world through the multilateral COVAX initiative, Astrazeneca said.

First COVAX shipments were dispatched to Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire, also countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Fiji, Mongolia and Moldova. This supply represents the first COVID-19 vaccine for many of these countries.

AP

AstraZeneca had said further shipments will arrive in the coming weeks with the aim of supplying a total of 142 countries with hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine in the coming months.

The majority of these doses, manufactured by AstraZeneca and its licence partner Serum Institute of India, will go to low and middle-income countries.

One of the reasons for the delay in shipment is said to be the increase in demand in India.

AP

Recently, amid the rapid spread of the second wave of COVID-19 in India, the government had imposed restrictions on vaccine exports from India to prioritise its population.

AstraZeneca is also under increasing pressure from the EU which last month threatened to impose export bans to countries outside the EU if it does not quickly deliver the vaccines to the 27-nation bloc as promised.

EU Commission President Von der Leyen had said the contract between the EU and AstraZeneca regulates how much vaccines the EU gets from AstraZeneca's plants inside the EU and in Britain.