BRUSSELS (Reuters) – AstraZeneca Plc reported on Friday that EU officials would reduce deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine to the block by between 60% and 31 million doses in the first quarter of the year due to problems with production, a senior Reuters official said.
The decline is again for the European vaccine against COVID-19 after Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech SE slowed the supply of their vaccine to the block this week, saying the move was necessary due to work to increase production.
AstraZeneca was expected to deliver about 80 million doses to the 27 EU countries by the end of March, the official who took part in the talks said.
The official added that AstraZeneca had planned to start deliveries to the EU from 15 February, in line with the original plans.
The company confirmed the drop in deliveries without giving specific details on the magnitude of the deficit.
“Initial volumes will be lower than initially expected due to reduced yields at a manufacturing center in our European supply chain,” an AstraZeneca spokesman said in a written statement.
“We will supply tens of millions of doses in February and March to the European Union as we continue to increase production volumes,” he said of the vaccine developed with Oxford University.
The UK-based pharmacist had also agreed to administer more than 80 million doses in the second quarter. On Friday, the EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company was unable to provide updated delivery targets for the period from April to June due to production problems.
AstraZeneca told EU officials at a meeting that the cut was due to production problems at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep, the EU official said. Novasep was not immediately available for comment.
EU governments “expressed deep dissatisfaction with this,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Twitter after the announcement.
The EU drug regulator will have to decide on the approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 29 January. It has already received an emergency permit in Britain.
The EU has an agreement to buy at least 300 million doses from AstraZeneca, with an option for an additional 100 million, part of the company’s global commitments to supply more than 3 billion doses.
Report by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; additional reports from Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot