Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca cut its supply forecast of Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union in the first quarter to about 30m doses.
The cut amounts to a third of its contractual obligations and a 25% drop from pledges made last month, a document seen by Reuters revealed on Friday.
Dated March 10, the document shows that the company expects to deliver 30.1m doses by the end of March and another 20m in April. AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said in February this year that the company would try to deliver 40m doses by the end of this month.
The contracted target for the EU from January to March was 90m doses. AstraZeneca also committed to supplying the 27-nation bloc with 180m doses between April and June.
A person close to the matter said that the difference between expected deliveries for the first quarter and the contractual obligations could be due to the fact that the company had faced difficulties in moving vaccines through the global supply chains.
It also attributes supply cuts to the EU to production problems in its facilities within the bloc.
The news comes as the EU is already struggling to complete vaccination plans as it faces repeated delays in supply and different rollout systems in each country.
EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton said on Twitter late on Thursday: “It’s time for AstraZeneca’s Board to exercise its fiduciary responsibility and now do what it takes to fulfil AZ’s commitments.”
To further aggravate the EU’s vaccine supply struggle, on Thursday, Washington told the EU that it should not expect to receive AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in the US any time soon.
According to sources from the EU directly involved in the negotiations, “the US said there was no way it would ship AstraZeneca vaccines to the EU”, they told reporters.
The US could be another complication for AstraZeneca’s plan to bring deliveries closer to its contractual obligation with the EU of 180m doses in the second quarter.
