The US pharmaceutical firm Moderna (MRNA) is delivering less than expected COVID vaccines to the UK, Canada and other countries following a shortage of production in its European supply chain.
The drugmaker said shipments to the European Union and Switzerland were on track.
But, added that it will make ‘adjustments’ to the expected second-quarter delivery stocks in affected countries.
As a result, the Boston-based company will reduce the number of doses it sends to the UK from this month, which will affect vaccination targets in the second quarter.
Modern manufactures vaccines for non-US markets in a plant in Switzerland, which is managed by contract manufacturer Lonza. It fills bottles for Great Britain and EU countries in Spain.
This comes after the UK announced on Friday that pregnant women in the country should get the Moderna and Pfizer (PFE) COVID vaccines, where available instead of the Oxford / AstraZeneca (AZN.L) one.
New advice from the government’s Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) said pregnant women are eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, and should get a jerk at the same time as the rest of the population.
Assessment should be done based on their age and any clinical risks, according to the JCVI.
The Moderna jab, which works in a similar way to the Pfizer vaccine, uses synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that can be quickly adapted to address new mutations of a virus.
Scientists have suggested that the changes could be made within six weeks.
It is given in two shots, one month apart.
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In March, the government announced that the Moderna vaccine would be rolled out in the UK from April, joining the AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNtech (BNTX) stores already being offered on the NHS.
Britain has ordered 17 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which has a 94% efficacy rate in trials.
It also ordered 100 million doses of AstraZeneca and 40 million doses of the vaccine from US drugmaker Pfizer and German biotechnology firm BioNTech.
In addition to supplies of four other vaccine manufacturers, 60 million doses of Valneva (VLA.PA), Novavax (NVAX) and Sanofi (SAN.PA) and 30 million of Janssen (JNJ) each.
In November, the United Kingdom became the first Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine.
To date, more than 32.5 million people in the UK have received a first dose of COVID vaccine, according to official data. Nearly nine million people got their second stab.
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