BRUSSELS, January 22 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca told European Union officials on Friday that the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine to the block in the first quarter of the year would be reduced by 60% to 31 million doses due to production problems, a senior official told Reuters.
The company is expected to deliver about 80 million doses to the 27 EU countries by the end of March, said the official involved in the talks.
The company also agreed to deliver more than 80 million doses in the second quarter, but could not indicate delivery targets for the period April-June on Friday due to production issues.
The company said the cuts were due to production problems at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep, the official said. (Posted by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Chris Reese)