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The Wall Street Journal writes that Pfizer can only deliver 50 million vaccines before the New Year, while the original plan was to deliver 100 million. However, the company believes that delivery issues will have no consequences for the plan to deliver 1 billion vaccines in 2021.
– The expansion of the raw material supply line took longer than expected. And it is important to emphasize that the outcome of the clinical trials was slightly delayed compared to initial estimates, a company spokesperson told the newspaper.
At the same time, Pfizer found that some of the raw materials they had access to at an early stage were not of sufficient quality.
“We have fixed it, but we could not do it in time to reach the delivery estimates for this year,” a person who has worked on the development of the vaccine told the Wall Street Journal.
Different vaccine
Pfizer sources its raw materials from suppliers in Europe and the United States.
The problems that Pfizer has ended up with illustrate how different development is from the corona vaccine. Typically, a vaccine manufacturer waits to purchase raw materials for production until after the vaccine has been approved.
Pfizer has never before produced a vaccine that uses so-called mRNA technology.
– For this vaccine, everything has happened at the same time. We started setting up supply chains in March, when the vaccine was still in development. It’s never happened before, says the Pfizer employee the Wall Street Journal spoke to.
It can cause problems for the British
The delivery problems could have consequences for the UK, which approved the Pfizer vaccine and ordered 40 million doses.
Norway also hopes to be able to start mass vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine, but depends on the EU approving it first. This is expected to happen at a meeting on December 29.
The Pfizer vaccine provides protection against COVID-19 in 95 percent of cases, based on preliminary test results. No serious side effects have been reported. The vaccine is taken in two doses, three weeks apart. It will reportedly cost around 180 crowns per dose.
