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BRUSSELS: European governments said the credibility of their Covid-19 vaccination programs was at risk yesterday after the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced a temporary slowdown in deliveries of its vaccines.
The injections developed by Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech began to be administered in the European Union in late December, but about nine of the 27 EU governments complained of “insufficient” doses at a meeting this week, one participant said.
Pfizer initially said that deliveries were progressing on schedule, but yesterday announced that there would be a temporary impact on shipments from late January to early February due to changes in manufacturing processes to boost production.
BioNTech said yesterday that a facility in Puurs, Belgium, will temporarily see a drop in the number of doses delivered in the next week as changes are needed to some production processes to increase capacity.
The companies will inform the European Commission, EU member states and other countries affected by the changes about updated delivery schedules, BioNTech said.
“This situation is unacceptable,” the health and social ministers of six EU states said in a letter to the EU commission on Pfizer’s delays.
“It not only affects the planned vaccination schedules, but it also decreases the credibility of the vaccination process,” said the ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
“What we want is for Pfizer-BioNTech to restore its deliveries to the agreed schedule,” Lithuanian Health Minister Arunas Dulkys told Reuters.
Germany, Europe’s largest buyer of the Pfizer vaccine, called the decision surprising and regrettable, while Canada said it was also affected, because its supplies come from the Belgian factory.
Italian Covid-19 Special Commissioner Domenico Arcuri said Pfizer will cut vaccine deliveries to the country by 29 percent starting Monday. The company had not been able to say how long it would reduce its supplies, Arcuri said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Pfizer had assured her that planned deliveries to the EU in the first quarter would not be delayed.
Promised increase
Pfizer, which is trying to deliver millions of doses at breakneck rates to curb a pandemic that has already killed more than 2 million people worldwide, said its changes “would provide a significant increase in doses by the end of February. and March “.
“We will return to the original schedule of deliveries to the European Union starting the week of January 25, with an increase in deliveries starting the week of February 15,” BioNTech said in a statement.
The changes will help companies deliver the fully committed dose amount in the first quarter and more in the second, the company said.
A second EU source told Reuters that in a meeting with diplomats on Wednesday, an EU Commission official said that deliveries would be limited until at least March, and that production will seriously increase for September alone.
Pfizer and BioNTech have contracts with the EU to supply up to 600 million doses this year. They have agreed to deliver 75 million shots in the second quarter and more by the end of the year. Neither the companies nor the EU have said how many doses are expected in the first quarter.
The EU also approved the vaccine developed by American biotech firm Moderna, which began shipping this week.
Moderna has committed to delivering 10 million doses by the end of March and 35 million each in the second and third quarters. Another 80 million doses will also be delivered this year, but still without a clear schedule.
Pro rata?
Pfizer and Moderna have not published detailed delivery schedules for each EU country.
Pfizer said the information was confidential, while Moderna said: “At this stage, we can only confirm that the doses will be distributed on a pro-rata basis among EU countries.”
But the deliveries don’t appear to be proceeding smoothly.
The German Health Ministry website says that the country, with a population of 83 million, will receive nearly 4 million doses of Pfizer by the end of January. By contrast, Bulgaria, with a population of about 7 million, expects to receive only about 60,000 injections from Pfizer in January.
A spokesman for the EU Commission said that national schedules were partly dependent on contracts signed by each state. It is unclear if all EU governments ordered its full vaccine allocation, as this information is confidential.
The EU has obtained nearly 2.3 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines and candidates from six companies, but most have yet to be approved. Decisions on the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are expected in late January and February, respectively. – Reuters
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