Filenews 15 January 2021
Pfizer is temporarily reducing deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine to Europe in order to increase the potential of its production chain, the US company and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health have announced.
"We expected 43,875 doses of vaccine from Pfizer next week. Now it looks like we will receive 36,075 doses," the Norwegian institute said.
Pfizer limits production to be able to upgrade its production capacity to 2 billion doses of vaccine per year, compared with 1.3 billion today, the Institute explained.
"The temporary reduction will apply to all European countries. It has not been clarified how long it will take for Pfizer to return to its capacity maximum," the statement adds.
Upgrading production units "will temporarily affect shipments from the end of January to the beginning of February, but will provide a significant increase in dose availability at the end of February and March," Pfizer announced.
It is noted that Norway, which is not a member of the EU, has gained access to the vaccines secured by the Union thanks to Sweden, which will buy more of the doses it needs to send them to Norway.
Many European countries now say they are receiving a smaller number of doses of the vaccine than they expected and complain of uncertainty about future deliveries, European sources told Reuters.
The vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech began to be delivered to Eu countries at the end of December. Moderna launched shipments of its own vaccine this week, following its approval by the European regulator on 6 January.
A third of the EU's 27 member countries said they received an "insufficient" number of doses during a teleconference of health ministers on Wednesday, according to a source who attended the meeting.
Belgium said it expects to receive only half of the planned doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in January due to a problem in the distribution chain, while Lithuania says its own supplies will be doubled by mid-February.
Deliveries are made "in accordance with the agreed schedule," a Pfizer spokesman said, adding that there is no problem in production, but schedules are optimized and subject to change.
A second European source told Reuters that in another conference call between diplomats on Wednesday, a European Commission official said deliveries would be limited at least until March, with production projected to accelerate to September.
The European Commission's chief vaccine negotiator Sandra Galina told MEPs during a public meeting on Tuesday that she has heard only three instances of protests over the supply of vaccines by European governments.
A Commission spokesman declined to comment on concerns about limited deliveries and uncertain timetables.
Traditions proportional to the population?
Pfizer and BioNTech have entered into two contracts with the European Union to supply 600 million instalments in 2021. They have agreed to supply 75 million instalments in the second quarter and larger quantities later in the year. It is unclear how many doses will be distributed in the first three months of 2021.
Moderna is committed to delivering 10 million instalments by the end of March and 35 million in the second and third quarters. Another 80 million instalments will be delivered in 2021, but with no clear timetable.
The pharmaceutical companies have not published detailed timetables for deliveries to each of the 27 countries of the European Union, which are expected to receive quantities of vaccines according to their population. Pfizer said the information is confidential.
"At the moment we can only confirm that the doses will be distributed proportionally to the countries of the European Union," said a Moderna spokesperson.
But traditions do not show they are evolving equally.
The German Health Ministry wrote on its website that Germany, with a population of 83 million, will receive about 4 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine by the end of January.
Romania, with a population four times smaller, says it expects to receive only 600,000 doses during the same period. Bulgaria, with less than a tenth of Germany's population, expects to receive about 60,000 doses of the vaccine in January, proportionally far fewer than Germany.
The European Union has secured 2.3 billion doses of vaccines and candidate vaccines from six companies, but most have not been approved. Decisions on AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are expected in January and February respectively.
Source: AP-IPA / Reuters / AFP
