AstraZeneca to deliver only half of contracted Covid vaccine doses to EU in Q2

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said it would only be able to supply half the amount of Covid-19 vaccine doses it had contracted to deliver to the European Union in the second quarter of 2021, but it would work to make up the shortfall elsewhere.

The company said it was working to increase output in its EU supply chain, and would look for sources elsewhere to deliver the 180 million doses it had contracted to deliver to the bloc in the second quarter of 2021.

The EU contracts stipulates that AstraZeneca will commit to its "best reasonable efforts" to deliver by a set timetable.

The shortfall comes after a reduction in supplies in the first quarter, and could keep the EU from meeting its target of vaccinating 70% of adults by the summer.

AstraZeneca said it would increase output in the third quarter of 2021, though it is not clear where the extra doses will come from.

France vaccine delays
At a briefing on Tuesday, the French health minister said that fewer AstraZeneca vaccine doses had arrived in February than expected.

"We will reach 1.7 million doses in February for AstraZeneca, instead of 2.5 million that we previously expected,” said the health inistry.

The ministry expects the delay to be caught up by March, when France expects to have 5.9 millions doses, fewer than the 9 million anticipated earlier this year.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is currently being offered in France to people 5- to-64-years-old with health risks, and to health workers under the age of 65.

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The Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine is expected to arrive in France with a month's delay, in May instead of April, after expected EU approval in March.

By then the health ministry said France will have received more than 30 million doses of all vaccines currently approved in Europe—Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

(with wires)