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ARCHIVED - Vaccine shortages to continue in Spain as AstraZeneca cuts EU deliveries again
The Anglo-Swedish drug company has said they are doing their best to keep up with demand but are struggling to produce enough of their coronavirus vaccine, which was approved by the European Union in January.
The AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company is once again set to renege on production orders for its COVID-19 vaccination, breaking the promise made to Europe for the second quarter of the year, an EU official has told the Reuters agency.
Although the contract between the drugmaker and the EC is for 300 million doses for the European Member States with an option for a further 100 million doses, last month AstraZeneca announced that they would fall short of their promise to deliver vaccines to Europe during the first 3 months of the year due to production problems in Belgium, sparking off a public row between manufacturer and the EC, which has forward ordered on behalf of member states.
Now, an EU official who asked to remain anonymous has told the news agency that the pharmaceutical company has said at internal meetings that they will also be delivering less than half the promised doses between April and the end of June. Altogether, just 130 million of the agreed 300 million doses are expected to arrive in the first 6 months of the year, with the allocation for the April-June period reduced from 180 to 90 million units.
Originally, 90 million units should have been delivered in the first quarter, instead of which, the EU will receive only 40 million.
The situation is likely to considerably lessen the EU’s chances of vaccinating 70 per cent of its adult population by the summer as planned and could, in turn, result in Europe being less willing to open its doors for foreign visitors as its own vaccination targets have not been met.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson, who refused to give exact figures, told Reuters that they were working extremely hard and doing everything possible to increase supply to the EU, while the EC refused to comment.
When the last row broke out about the supply from AstraZeneca, documents were published which called into question some of the statements being made by the company, which claimed that the contract had been signed with the UK before the EU; a claim which has been dismissed as untrue within Europe.
There is growing dis-satisfaction with the situation amongst the European bulk-buying partners, who feel that priority is being given to the UK by the manufacturer, which is vaccinating at an enviable rate.
Spain is amongst the governments which has opted to only administer the vaccines to those aged under 55 because of lack of research data for the over 55s and in Germany only 15% of the vaccines made available have been used due to doubts about its effectivity.
Spain is currently buying the bulk of its vaccines from Pfizer, and although the rate of vaccinations is increasing, lack of supply remains the principal obstacle to the resumption of normal life.