Tension is increasing between European authorities and Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE after officials said the companies unexpectedly cut their deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines and put their immunization schedules at risk.
The Italian government has asked the country’s attorney general to study whether it can take legal action after Pfizer cut its vaccine deliveries by 29% this week, by refurbishing its factory in Belgium, a government spokesman said Wednesday. market.
Separately, the German state of Hamburg said Pfizer delivered fewer vials of the vaccine to the city than expected this week.
In Europe, Pfizer and BioNTech initially sent bottles with five doses of vaccine, but because of a precautionary practice known as overfilling, the bottles contained enough extra liquid for a sixth dose. After the European Union drug agency decided on January 8 that six doses could be obtained from one bottle, the companies reduced the number of bottles delivered, arguing that their contract was for a certain number of doses, not bottles. The companies said they met the schedule to deliver the promised number of doses.
A spokeswoman for the Hamburg government said the state has struggled to extract the sixth dose, as special syringes are needed and authorities have not been able to buy them in sufficient quantities. This left her mobile vaccination teams that inoculate nursing homes unable to use the full amount of the vaccine, she said.