By Daniel Michaels

The European Union is suing AstraZeneca PLC for failure to deliver on its Covid-19 vaccine contract, the bloc's health commissioner said on Twitter, the latest development in a long-simmering dispute between the two sides over vaccine supplies.

"Our priority is to ensure #Covid-19 vaccine deliveries take place," Stella Kyriakides said on Twitter.

AstraZeneca said it regretted the European Commission's decision to take legal action and was looking forward to working with the EU's executive arm "to vaccinate as many people as possible."

The commission said last week it was preparing a lawsuit against the U.K. pharmaceuticals giant. The commission and AstraZeneca have wrangled all year, since the company said it would be able to deliver only a fraction of the up to 400 million doses it was contracted to deliver by midyear.

A commission spokesman said Thursday that the EU was "keeping all our options open, including legal options."

The EU lawsuit is being brought by the commission jointly with all 27 member states.

--Cecilia Butini contributed to this article.

Write to Daniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2021 09:19 ET (13:19 GMT)

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