Delivery, distribution delays hinder COVID-19 vaccination drive in EU, US

SUPPLY ISSUES FRUSTRATE DISTRIBUTERS

Following Pfizer, British drugmaker AstraZeneca is to cut deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to the EU by 60 percent in the first quarter of 2021 due to "production problems," an unnamed senior EU official told media Friday.

AstraZeneca, which developed its vaccine with the University of Oxford, disclosed the situation in a statement giving few details. "Initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain," the statement was quoted by BBC as saying.

The company signed a deal with the EU to provide "at least 300 million doses of its vaccine," according to BBC, but was unlikely to meet that promise in the first quarter, nor able to indicate delivery targets for the second quarter due to production issues.

To date, EU countries have administered over 5 million doses to their citizens. The aim was to inoculate 70 percent of adults by the end of August, the newspaper The Guardian reported.

Under the current situation, Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said that a delay would be "completely unacceptable."