EU asks AstraZeneca to publish vaccine contract as supply row deepens

The European Union is asking AstraZeneca to publish the contract it signed with the bloc on Covid-19 vaccine supplies, an EU official said on Wednesday, in an escalation of the row over delivery delays.

The company pulled out of a meeting with the European Union scheduled for Wednesday, the official said.

In an interview with newspapers on Tuesday, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the EU contract was based on a best-effort clause and did not commit the company to a specific timetable for deliveries.

Vaccine rollouts in the European Union have been slow compared with countries in some other regions, especially former EU member Britain, and fraught with problems, not least interruptions to supply chains.

Soriot's interview followed the company's announcement of a cut in supplies to the EU in the first quarter, which an EU official told Reuters last week...