Jacob Lund, communications director at the pharmaceutical company's Swedish office, tells TT that there will be no delay in the start of deliveries - provided that the vaccine is approved in Europe.

The European Commission is expected to approve Astra Zeneca's vaccine on January 29.

- On the other hand, the initial volumes will be lower than planned due to reduced production volumes at a subcontractor in our European supply chain.

However, we will deliver tens of millions of doses to the EU in February and March, as we continue to increase production volumes, says Jacob Lund.

The production disruptions also create problems for Swedish vaccination planning.

"During the first month after approval, Astra Zeneca will only be able to deliver approximately 700,000 doses to Sweden - that is less than the 1 million doses we have counted on," writes vaccine coordinator Richard Bergström in a text message to GP.

Millions fewer doses to Europe

The company, which has not yet received a permit to deliver corona vaccine to Europe, has previously promised 80 million doses to 27 EU countries by the end of March.

The expected figure has now dropped to 31 million doses, writes Reuters, whose source is said to have participated in the talks.

Due to the problems with the subcontractor, Astra Zeneca can no longer stand by its previous estimate of being able to deliver more than 80 million doses during the second quarter of the year.

Astra Zeneca are not the only ones reducing the number of doses.

Last week, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that they are reducing the number of doses delivered by a total of 15 percent over four weeks.

The message did not go down well with several European ministers, including Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren, who called the decision "unacceptable".

Up to and including 17 January, a total of approximately 147,000 vaccine doses against covid-19 had been consumed in Sweden.

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