BRUSSELS, Jan. 22 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca told European Union officials on Friday that it would cut deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to the block by 60% to 31 million doses in the first quarter of the year due to manufacturing issues, a senior official said told Reuters.
The company should deliver approximately 80 million doses to the 27 EU countries by the end of March, the official involved in the talks said.
The company had also agreed to deliver more than 80 million doses in the second quarter, but was unable to set delivery targets for the April-June period on Friday due to manufacturing issues.
The company said the cut was due to manufacturing problems at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep, the official said. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Chris Reese)