Covid vaccine manufacturer Pfizer is shrinking and delaying its deliveries to Europe while it expands its factory in Belgium.
The company makes one of just two vaccines that are being given to the public in the UK and confirmed that Britain would be affected in late January and February.
Concerns about vaccine deliveries in the UK swelled this week as the Government repeatedly refused to reveal how many are available and how many more are coming next week.
Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, today said that the amount of vaccines available was the ‘limiting’ factor of how fast the country’s roll-out could go.
Britain is already leading the continent with 3.3million people vaccinated – one in 20 – and a million immunised in just five days, but officials insist the programme could go even faster if there were enough supplies to keep it running.
Countries in the EU have criticised Pfizer for shrinking its deliveries as it emerged Norway would get a batch 18 per cent smaller than expected next week.
The UK is already stretching Pfizer’s jabs – which have to be kept in specialist freezers at below 70°C – as far as they will go, stretching the gap between doses from three to 12 or more weeks and using thinner needles to reduce wastage and squeeze more doses out of the vials.
Pfizer and BioNTech make one of just two vaccines that are being given to the public in the UK and confirmed that Britain would be affected in late January and February.
Professor Chris Whitty today said supplies are ‘limiting’ UK’s jab roll-out
Pfizer is based in the US and developed the vaccine with German firm BioNTech. They manufacture Europe’s supplies at a facility in Belgium.
The German health ministry revealed today that its supplies were being delayed.
The ministry said: ‘At short notice, the EU Commission and, via it, the EU member states, were informed that Pfizer will not be able to fully meet the already promised delivery volume for the next three to four weeks due to modifications at the plant.’
Pfizer expects to have finished the work on its Belgian factory by mid-February, reported news website ENCA.
Germany, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden were among the countries expecting deliveries.
In a letter to the European Commission, leaders from some of those countries described the delay as ‘unacceptable’, the Financial Times reported.
‘Not only does it impact the planned vaccination schedules,’ they wrote. ‘It also decreases the credibility of the vaccination process’.
Britain has now officially left the EU so it is not involved in the European Commission complaint, but the company told the FT Britain’s supply would also be affected.
They said: ‘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.’
A Pfizer Denmark spokesperson told the Associated Press: ‘This temporary reduction will affect all European countries’.
Boris Johnson and his vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi this week repeatedly refused to be drawn on putting numbers on Britain’s deliveries, claiming it was a matter of national security because ‘the whole world is looking to acquire vaccines at the moment’.
The UK has ordered 40million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, alongside 100million of one made by Oxford University and AstraZeneca – those are the only two approved.
Although Britain’s vaccination programme is hurtling forward and now immunising more than 250,000 people per day, pressure is growing on the Government to hurry it up even more.
The NHS looks on target to hit the 13.9million most vulnerable people by mid-February, but lockdown rules will likely have to remain until significantly more people – potentially everyone over the age of 50, around half the population – has been reached.
Officials say the ‘rate-limiting factor’ of the vaccine roll-out is not how quickly the NHS can use up the supplies but how quickly they’re coming in.
Professor Chris Whitty said in a Downing Street press conference today: ‘The thing which is limiting us at the moment is not the capacity of the NHS to deliver, it is the vaccines delivered.
‘That is true across Europe, that is true across the world, and it’s something which all of us need to do is to make sure we use the vaccines we’ve got as efficiently as possible.’