The details of the contract are contained in a redacted version published online without fanfare months ago, long before the UK and the EU became embroiled in a bitter dispute over vaccine supply. The redacted contract has, technically, been publicly available since at least November 26, according to the date the page was last edited. It was a reasoning ridiculed by European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, who had come under intense questioning over whether the EU's "best efforts" contract was significantly weaker than the UK's. BEIS did not share even its redacted AstraZeneca contract with CNN when asked in late January, and it cited "security reasons" when declining to give information on vaccine supply levels. "The detail of any commercial agreements between the UK government and AstraZeneca for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are commercially sensitive."

Source: CNN February 17, 2021 21:56 UTC