Pfizer will temporarily reduce Covid vaccine deliveries in Europe

LONDON – Pfizer will temporarily reduce the number of doses of its coronavirus vaccine that are delivered in Europe, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

The authority said in a statement issued on Friday that deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be reduced from next week “and for a future period”.

NIPH said it received a message from Pfizer on Friday “just before 10 a.m.”, according to a translation of the statement.

“We were predicted to have 43,875 doses of vaccine from Pfizer in week 3. We now appear to be receiving 36,075 doses,” the statement said. A Pfizer spokesman was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

He explained that the temporary reduction in deliveries was “in connection with an improvement in production capacity”. “The temporary reduction will affect all European countries,” she added.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday that he was confident it could “dramatically increase” vaccine production this year to make up to 2 billion doses.

Bourla also said that Pfizer currently has more doses of his vaccine than were used.

The European Union said last week that it was doubling its stock of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said the agreement would allow the EU to purchase another 300 million doses for existing stock. The EU executive army has already been criticized for not buying more of the vaccine.