Pfizer to Cut Vaccine Shipments to EU for factory renovation

Shafaq News/ Pfizer Inc. will decrease deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine to countries outside the U.S. in the next three to four weeks as it renovates a factory in Belgium.

 “As part of the normal productivity improvements to increase capacity, we must make modifications to the process and facility that will require additional regulatory approvals,” a Pfizer spokeswoman said in a statement. “Although this will temporarily impact shipments in late January to early February, it will provide a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March.”

Together, Pfizer and BioNTech will be able to deliver the fully committed quantity of vaccine doses to the European Union in the first quarter, and even higher output in the second quarter, BioNTech said in a statement Friday. The EU deliveries will return to its original schedule the week of Jan. 25, with increased deliveries commencing the week of Feb. 15.

“The companies will inform the European Commission, EU member states and other countries impacted by the changes about the updated delivery schedules,” BioNTech said in the statement.

Pfizer and its German partner are under growing pressure to make more shots as countries around the world rush to immunize vulnerable people. The companies recently increased their output target for this year by more than 50% to 2 billion doses. However, some of that increase is simply due to regulators giving health-care providers the go-ahead to pull an additional dose from each vial.

Six EU nations decried the situation as "unacceptable" in a letter sent to the EU Commission after the move by Pfizer and BioNTech.

"Not only does it impact the planned vaccination schedules, it also decreases the credibility of the vaccination process," said the health ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

They also urged the European Commission to "demand a public explanation."

The EU approved the BioNTech-Pfizer product in late December, with Moderna's vaccine also getting the green light earlier this month. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be cleared for use in the EU by the end of the month.