AstraZeneca may miss second-quarter EU vaccine deliveries: Report

Efforts to procure extra COVID vaccines from UK, US and India have failed due to protectionism, Bloomberg reports.

AstraZeneca Plc will supply less than half the planned number of Covid-19 vaccines to the European Union in the second quarter after the company’s efforts to remedy a slew of problems ran into further trouble. The British-Swedish drugmaker will deliver about 76 million out of a planned 180 million doses, according to data based on delivery projections for one member state seen by Bloomberg. The national figures were extrapolated to the EU level based on the European Commission’s methodology for distributing supplies. Astra warned of a shortfall last month after encountering issues with its vaccine yield at EU production sites, but had said it was looking to make up the loss by shipping some doses from elsewhere, including production sites in the U.S.