the uk and did not have regulatory approval to supply eu states. british prime minister boris johnson was said to be discussing the matter with eu leaders in an attempt to prevent an export ban. a pfizer source told the daily telegraph that pfizer had told the eu commission that lipid nanoparticles, a vital component for the pfizer–biontech vaccine, are manufactured by croda international at its factory at snaith, north yorkshire, and if the uk was to retaliate, production of the pfizer-biontech vaccine would halt within weeks. around march, germany-based companies merck and evonik had started to supply biontech with these lipid nanoparticles or extended their previous deliveries. at a summit on 25 march, european leaders stopped short of banning the export of vaccines in connection with the astrazeneca row. ursula von der leyen told astrazeneca that they needed to honour their contract with the eu before they could export vaccines. nevertheless, the eu continued to contribute astrazeneca doses made in the eu to the covax scheme. in her government declaration from 25 march, german chancellor angela merkel stressed that europe needed to produce vaccines independently from third countries because the uk was only producing for the uk and the us did not export any vaccines either. uk-eu discussions were held in late march over stockpiles at a plant producing astrazeneca vaccines in leiden, the netherlands. vaccines produced at the plant could not be used until the eu regulator granted approval for distribution of the site on 26 march 2021, two days after astrazeneca submitted their approval request. lower than expected yields at british plants in oxford and staffordshire and a temporary ban on exports from india led the uk to look for supplies from leiden, which was included as a supplier in its contract with astrazeneca. the eu has the power to block such an export under its january regulations. the leiden plant has the capacity to produce around 5 million doses per month. in negotiations from 23 march progress was made but there were sticking points over the proportion of output to go to each party. the uk wanted a 50–50 split whereas the eu wanted a split based on relative population. the eu's internal market commissioner, thierry breton, stated on 1 april that there would be no export of the astrazeneca vaccine to the uk until the company had met its commitment to the eu. april global restrictions and legal dispute on 7 april, following further review of the data, the ema concluded that unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of the astrazeneca vaccine. ema recommended that eu member states should take into account their pandemic situation and vaccine availability in their decisions on the further use of the astrazeneca vaccine national regulators, such as germany's paul ehrlich institute had previously come to the same conclusion after the astrazeneca rollout continued. germany had stopped administering the vaccine to under 60s by 31 march. on 8 april, the uk health minister matt hancock advised that people aged between 18 and 29 should be offered a different vaccine, stating that the uk had more than enough alternatives. in total, the uk has ordered 40 million doses of the pfizer-biontech vaccine and 17 million of the moderna jab, the two brands approved at the time (enough for up to 28.5 m people). several eu member states had also restricted the use of the astrazeneca jab, in germany to those over 60, in france to over 55s, and spain to over 65s. the medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency in the united kingdom had stated on 1 april that it had received 22 reports of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis as well as 8 reports of other thrombosis events associated with low blood platelet counts; these had resulted in seven fatalities in the uk out of the 18.1 million people who had received the astrazeneca jab so far. previously the agency had only reported 5 cases of rare brain blood clots. this figure rose to 168 cases of these rare blood clots and 32 deaths up to 14 april after 21.2 million people had received a shot in the uk. non-european countries also either temporarily or permanently banned or restricted the use of astrazeneca, or cancelled orders. examples include australia, the philippines, the african union, and south africa, while in the usa government vaccine advisers said they didn't foresee astrazeneca being used there in future. many member states of the european union offered the astrazeneca jab to those interested ahead of the usual priorisation scheme and so sped up their rollout. for example, the minister-president of bavaria, markus söder, said that "everyone who dares", including those under 60, should be able to receive this jab as soon as possible. on 16 april (after the netherlands banned astrazeneca outright on the national level) doctors from a zuyderland hospital in netherlands published an open letter to the dutch minister of health, criticising the press for their role in the poor reputation of the vaccine and arguing for voluntary vaccination on the basis of informed consent. the letter was accompanied by an x-ray of heavily damaged lungs of a patient who rejected vaccination under influence of the negative press coverage, and soon after contracted covid-19 in a heavy form. on 21 april, an eu official said it will not take up options for additional doses under the existing astrazeneca and j&j (viral vector based vaccine) contracts, with a european commission spokesman saying options could be exercised at any time but declining further comments. the eu official said discussions were ongoing with astrazeneca and j&j with regards to "booster" jabs and with regards to vaccines in relation to new variants of covid-19. the eu commission had the previous week said that it had started talks with pfizer-biontech on up to 1.8 billion doses for 2022 and 2023 on the basis of a monthly supply contract for its mrna vaccine, this being in addition to the existing 600m biontech-pfizer and 310m moderna doses on order for 2021. on 26 april, the eu commission launched legal action against astrazeneca for breach of contract. the eu commission said on 9 may that it had no current plans to renew their order with astrazeneca beyond june when the current contract expired. the new agreement with pfizer-biontech included provisions that all essential components are sourced within the eu. on 18 june, the eu and astrazeneca both claimed victory with the european commission saying "this decision confirms the position of the commission: astrazeneca did not live up to the commitments it made in the contract" and astrazeneca "court acknowledged that the difficulties experienced by astrazeneca in this unprecedented situation had a substantial impact on the delay". a further court ruling is expected in september on whether astrazeneca has fulfilled this agreement.