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Pfizer vaccine, 29% fewer doses from Monday. Concern about recalls

The delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech doses for Covid vaccination will slow down in the countries of the European Union starting Monday 18 January. In the specific case of Italy, it will therefore go from 470 thousand doses per week to about 340 thousand. This was confirmed by the pharmaceutical company itself, specifying that the cause is due to some works that will affect the Belgian plant where the vials are produced and that, once completed, production will not only resume at full speed but may also increase.

“Pfizer is working hard to provide more doses than initially expected with a new declared goal of 2 billion doses in 2021”, the company underlined through a message sent to AFP, explaining that the planned interventions in the production structure require further regulatory approvals and therefore there may be “fluctuations in the order and delivery schedules at the Belgian plant in Puurs”.

The news aroused immediate concern in the EU countries. The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, learned of the delay in Pfizer’s production, immediately got in touch with the CEO of the pharmaceutical company, who “he reassured me that all the doses planned for the EU will be delivered in the first quarter», He specified during a press conference in Lisbon. “We expect the delivery schedule to be respected,” added von der Leyen, considering that “the first dose has been administered and the second needs to be administered within a certain period of time».

Strong disappointment and immediate reaction from the commissioner to the emergency Domenico Arcuri who, in a press release released the same day, explained that he had learned the news from Pfizer itself through a “unilateral” communication, that is not agreed with the Italian State, and against which he said he was ready to act “in all locations” to in order to protect the health of Italians.

In response to widespread concerns, Pfizer and BioNTech, however, made it known in a joint statement that they had a plan has been drawn up that should reduce delays in deliveries of the anti-Covid vaccine to one week. «We will return to the initial EU distribution calendar starting the week of January 25, with an increase in deliveries from the week of February 15», Reads the note. “To do this, some changes to the production process are now necessary.”

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