It hasn’t been a great month for the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID19. The vaccine was halted in many countries over blood clot fears.

Australia never received the doses it expected, and even the United States is offering up 60 million AstraZeneca doses to any countries that might want them.

But now, the European Union has taken it a step further – filing a lawsuit against AstraZeneca, raising the stakes in the spat between the drugmaker and the bloc’s 27 governments over vaccine deliveries.

The EU claims AstraZeneca failed to provide a “reliable strategy” to ensure timely delivery of vaccine doses,

.“We want to make sure that there’s a speedy delivery of a sufficient number of doses the European citizens are entitled to and which have been promised on the basis of this contract.”

European Commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker

The main objective is to obtain the contracted number of doses, according to an EU official. Astra delivered just a quarter of the coronavirus vaccine doses that the EU was expecting in the first quarter, while it has revised downward its projections for shipments in this quarter.

The case was filed by the commission on its own behalf and on behalf of all 27 EU member states at the Brussels court.

The drugmaker has fired back:

“AstraZeneca has fully complied with the advance purchase agreement with the European Commission and will strongly defend itself in court.”

astrazeneca statement