As AstraZeneca nears European approval for its long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine, the drug manufacturer has informed officials that initial shipments will be lighter than originally expected.
Two German-language publications, Bild and oe24, report that AZ informed EU officials this week that deliveries in the first quarter will be lower than originally expected. An AstraZeneca spokesperson attributed the dip to “lower revenues at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain”.
“We will be supplying tens of millions of doses to the European Union in February and March as we continue to increase production volumes,” she said.
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The news comes after AstraZeneca applied for European approval earlier this month for its vaccine with an Oxford partner. According to reports, the company’s vaccine could receive a European license by the end of January. So far, the mRNA vaccines Pfizer and Moderna have received European green light.
In a phase 3 study, the AstraZeneca vaccine was generally 70% effective, but a dosing error in some participants yielded a higher efficacy result. For subjects who received a half dose followed by a full dose, the efficacy was 90%. For those who received two full doses, the efficacy was 62%. The results raised questions about the vaccine and prompted AZ to conduct another trial.
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Meanwhile, the UK drug maker’s dose reduction in the first quarter is adding to the pain of reduced EU deliveries of the Pfizer / BioNTech uptake this week as those companies work to scale manufacturing capacity. Some countries have cut back on the delay, although manufacturers say a factory upgrade will allow them to make many more doses by 2021.