Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre
This is key.
Was EU money used only to set up & develop the facilities in the EU only. If so then there is no argument or claim to be had from the EU.
IF AZ did use UK & EU money to set up production in the UK, EU could claim a % of the output based on a % of funding.
This will rattle on for a while, lawyers will be licking their lips, but it won't get resolved quickly and I would hope that at the speed we're going we'll have all had our shots from one of the many vaccines in the pipeline by the time it's resolved.
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Pascal Soirot's interview to La Repubblica insisted that EU funds were only used in the EU. This is consistent with AstraZeneca's press release announcing the deal last June, in which it thanked those member states that had assisted with the establishment of facilities within the EU. Obviously that press release was made many months before this all blew up and can't be dismissed as obfuscation. Then, and now, AstraZeneca's position is that EU development assistance has only benefited its EU operations. And as the EU itself seems to believe that where its money was spent is the key to all this, sooner or later they're going to have to slink off and accept they screwed up.