Tensions are rising between European authorities and Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE after officials said companies unexpectedly cut Covid-19 vaccine deliveries and jeopardized their immunization programs.
The Italian government has asked the country’s attorney general to study whether to take legal action after Pfizer cut vaccine deliveries for this week by 29% while rebuilding its plant in Belgium, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Separately, the German state of Hamburg said Pfizer delivered fewer vaccine bottles to the city than expected this week.
In Europe, Pfizer and BioNTech initially delivered vials with doses of five vaccines, but due to a precautionary practice known as overfilling, the vials contained enough extra fluid for the sixth dose. After the European Union Agency for Drugs decided on 8 January that six doses could be obtained from one vial, the companies reduced the number of vials delivered, arguing that their contract was for a certain amount of doses, not vials. The companies said they were on time to deliver the number of doses they had promised.
A spokeswoman for the Hamburg government said the state had struggled to extract the sixth dose because special syringes were needed and authorities failed to buy enough. This has left their mobile vaccination teams inoculating nursing homes unable to use the full amount of the vaccine, she said.