(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc. has held secondary doses for each of its COVID-19 vaccinations at the request of the federal government and does not anticipate problems delivering them to Americans, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
Pfizer’s comments are contrary to a report in the Washington Post that the federal government reduced its vaccine stockpile in late December and has no stockpiles left.
“Operation Warp Speed has asked us to start delivering secondary doses only recently,” the spokesman said. “Therefore, we have all two doses of previous deliveries to the US at hand.”
The US Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment.
Pfizer has delivered more than 15 million doses to destinations in the United States, mainly from its Michigan facility, and expects to be able to produce around 2 billion doses worldwide by 2021, the spokesman said.
The United States, however, struggled to manage the fires that were distributed. Only about 12 million of the more than 31 million doses that were shipped were administered, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The shortage of scattered vaccines was reported on Friday on the front lines of the US fight against the coronavirus pandemic, causing at least one major health care system to cancel a number of appointments of people hoping to be inoculated.
Earlier on Friday, Pfizer announced that it would have a temporary impact on shipments to European countries in late January to early February, caused by changes in manufacturing processes to increase production. [L1N2JQ0V3]
About nine of the 27 governments in the European Union complained of “insufficient” doses at a meeting this week, a participant said.
Reporting by Carl O’Donnell; Edited by Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall