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* Cut to about 30 mln doses, a third of contract's goal
* CEO in Feb pledged to try to deliver 40 mln
* To deliver 20 mln to EU in April -document
(Adds delivery data for EU countries)
By Francesco Guarascio
BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca cut its
supply forecast of COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union in the
first quarter to about 30 million doses, a third of its
contractual obligations and a 25% drop from pledges made last
month, a document seen by Reuters shows.
The shortfall is a further blow to EU's vaccination plans
already being hampered by repeated delays in supply and a slow
rollout in some nations.
The AstraZeneca document, shared with EU officials and dated
March 10, shows that the company now expects to deliver 30.1
million doses by the end of March, and another 20 million in
April.
On Feb. 25, AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot told the European
Parliament that the company would try to deliver 40 million
doses by the end of March.
The document shows that on Feb. 24, the Anglo-Swedish
company had estimated a supply of only 34 million doses to the
EU for the January to March period, well below its contracted
target of 90 million doses.
The new cut follows a decision last week by Italy and the
European Commission to block a shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines
from Italy to Australia, in the first application of an EU
mechanism that allows the bloc to refuse export requests from
vaccine makers that do not comply with EU supply contracts.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca declined to comment on Friday.
A person familiar with the situation said that the increased
deliveries the company had expected for the first quarter did
not materialise because of difficulties in moving vaccines
through global supply chains.
The United States, from where AstraZeneca expected to partly
supply the EU market, told the EU that it would not export
AstraZeneca shots in the near future, Reuters reported on
Thursday, citing EU officials.
The company had said its initial supply cuts were caused by
production problems in the EU.
'NOT BEST EFFORTS'
"I see efforts, but not "best efforts". That's not good
enough yet for AstraZeneca to meet its Q1 obligations," EU
industry commissioner Thierry Breton said on Twitter late on
Thursday.
"It's time for AstraZeneca's Board to exercise its fiduciary
responsibility and now do what it takes to fulfil AZ's
commitments," Breton added.
AstraZeneca has committed to making its "best reasonable
efforts" to meet the targets set in its contract with the EU,
which foresees delivery of 300 million doses from December to
the end of June. The vaccine was approved for use in the EU in
late January.
The AstraZeneca document also shows that the company expects
to deliver about 20 million doses to the EU in April, more than
half of that in the last week. It includes no forecasts for May
or June.
AstraZeneca has committed to supplying the 27-nation bloc
with 180 million doses between April and June.
But EU countries since February have updated their
vaccination plans to include only half of the contracted doses
after AstraZeneca told them it was facing difficulties.
Germany, the largest country in the bloc, is expected to
receive 19% of the AstraZeneca supplies to the EU between next
week and the end of April, or a total of about 6 million doses,
including over 2 million in the last week of the month, the
document shows.
France should receive nearly 15% of the total, or about 4.7
million shots. Italy, with almost 14% of the overall expected
supplies, is to get 4.4 million by the end of April, the
document shows.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; editing by
Rosalba O'Brien and Jason Neely)
