AstraZeneca said on the 22nd that it would cut initial delivery of coronavirus vaccines to EU countries because production capacity fell short of expectations.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca said on the 22nd that the initial production of the coronavirus vaccine will be lower than expected due to the reduced capacity of a production base in the supply chain.
The spokesman also said that the company will strive to increase production capacity and will start supplying vaccines to the EU in February and March this year.
According to British media reports, an AstraZeneca executive revealed that the company was scheduled to deliver about 80 million doses of vaccine to the European Union by the end of March, but now it can only deliver about 31 million doses, reducing initial delivery by about 60%.
In response, the European Commission said that AstraZeneca had informed the European Union that the vaccine delivery plan had changed and that the European Union was working to learn more details.
According to the report, European Union governments are deeply dissatisfied with AstraZeneca’s reduction of initial delivery of the coronavirus vaccine and require the company to clarify the delivery schedule in order to formulate a vaccination plan.
AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine was jointly developed by the company and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
At present, the vaccine has not been licensed for marketing, and the European Drug Administration will decide whether to approve its listing before the 29th of this month.
At present, the European Union has ordered at least 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca.
In addition, the coronavirus vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and German biotechnology company has been approved by the European Union, and Pfizer has recently slowed down the delivery of the vaccine on the grounds that its Belgian-based pharmaceutical plant needs to be modified to improve production capacity.
At present, Italy and Poland have warned that Pfizer may be brought to court.
