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AstraZeneca vaccine – delivery cuts due to export restrictions

The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has justified further cuts in planned corona vaccine deliveries to the EU with production problems and export restrictions. The company was “disappointed” on Saturday that it had to cut the planned vaccine deliveries to the EU again. AstraZeneca is working “tirelessly” to speed up deliveries. According to this, only 100 million cans are to be delivered to the EU by the middle of the year.

Due to production difficulties at locations in the EU, AstraZeneca had announced that it would export corona vaccines from production locations outside the EU to EU countries. Due to export restrictions from countries with other production locations, deliveries in the first quarter would now be reduced, the statement said. The planned deliveries for the second quarter are “probably” also affected. “Despite the challenges,” the company plans to ship 100 million vaccine doses to the EU in the first half of the year, including 30 million in the first quarter through March.

The EU has ordered up to 400 million doses of its corona vaccine from AstraZeneca. At the beginning of the year, there had been a dispute between Brussels and the company over the speed of vaccine deliveries. The company announced at the time that it would be able to deliver significantly less vaccine than planned in the first quarter due to problems at a plant in Belgium. The EU reacted angrily that AstraZeneca appeared to continue to supply the UK and other non-EU countries with unreduced volumes. However, the company later agreed to deliver more cans to the EU.

Talks with the EU are ongoing

The EU Commission announced on Saturday that it had taken note of AstraZeneca’s delivery problems. Talks with the company continued. “We insist that the company do everything it can to meet its commitments.”

Recently, there had been several setbacks for the AstraZeneca vaccine: Due to reports of severe blood clots, including cases in Austria, several European countries suspended their vaccinations this week. Austria is not among them. However, it has not yet been clarified whether there is a causal connection between the vaccination and the blood clots. (apa)

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