Moderna, a U.S. company, will reduce supplies of its coronavirus vaccine to Italy by 20%. This will put additional pressure on the vaccination campaign in the country.
Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for COVID-19, said this, according to Reuters.
“During the week beginning February 7, only 132,000 doses will be delivered, 20 percent less than agreed upon,” he said.
Italy is currently 300,000 doses short of the vaccine, he said.
Meanwhile, Pfizer cut vaccine shipments to Italy by 29% last week and by 20% this week.
AstraZeneca has already told Italy that it will provide only 3.4 million doses in the first three months of distribution instead of the originally promised 16 million.
The Italian commissioner said that supply decisions are taken unilaterally without prior notice and are “unacceptable.”
On Jan. 28, France also said it expected to receive 25 percent fewer doses of the vaccine produced by Moderna.
As we know, there has been growing concern in the EU lately that vaccine companies are disrupting contracts and reducing the supply of drugs to the EU.
It has come to the point that Brussels is ready to block the supply of Pfizer vaccine, which is produced in the EU, to Britain.
