COVID-19 Vaccine: AstraZeneca reduces supply due to production delays

COVID-19 Vaccine: AstraZeneca reduces supply due to production delays. On December 8, the Financial Times reported that the British government’s vaccine working group admitted on the 7th that the vaccine jointly developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca could only supply 4 million doses this year.

Earlier this year, the working group predicted that by the end of the year, the United Kingdom will be able to produce 30 million doses of vaccine, which is the second COVID-19 vaccine affected by production delays.　

Previously, Pfizer had reduced the shipment of vaccines this year to half of the original plan due to supply chain issues. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech had hoped to launch 100 million doses of vaccines worldwide by the end of this year, but due to the shortage of raw materials purchased from suppliers in the United States and Europe, the vaccine production scale was reduced to 50 million. But Pfizer said it will launch more than 1 billion doses of vaccines in 2021 to make up for the 50 million vaccine gap this year.

In addition, Pfizer has informed US officials that it will not be able to provide a large number of additional vaccines before the end of June or July next year.

According to the “Times Weekly” report, the COVID-19 pneumonia vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech will be the first to be vaccinated on December 7th local time in the UK. The first batch of 800,000 doses of vaccine will be given priority to medical staff and high-risk individuals. The British National Medical Service System revealed in a document last month that all Britons who want to get the COVID-19 vaccine may have to wait until the end of April next year to get the first shot.

In addition, AstraZeneca and Pfizer have both requested India to grant emergency use authorization so that the South Asian country most affected by the epidemic can use their vaccines. An official from the Drugs Controller General of India said that Pfizer and the Serum Institute of India, which produces AstraZeneca vaccines for developing countries, have both applied for authorization, which will allow them Of vaccines bypass the lengthy trial and application process

Disclaimer of medicaltrend.org