Moderna cuts vaccine deliveries to Italy and France

Moderna has told Italy and France they will get fewer vaccine doses than expected in February in a further setback for EU vaccination programmes, according to a report.

Domenico Arcuri, the special commissioner for Italy's pandemic response, said the US company had informed Rome that delivery volumes would be a fifth less than planned from early February, the Financial Times reported.

France's health ministry also said it expected 25% fewer doses than originally planned for February.

The reductions are the latest blow to the EU's faltering vaccination plans after the bloc's row with AstraZeneca over a shortfall in supplies. After the company told the EU it would supply less than half the vaccines ordered for the first three months of 2020 some EU states said they were considering legal action.

Arcuri expressed his "astonishment, our concern, our disappointment" about the shortage. "Now almost every day the forecast deliveries are changed," he said. BioNTech and Pfizer have also cut some deliveries in response to high demand.

Moderna will deliver 132,000 doses of its vaccine to Italy in the week starting 9 February compared with 166,000 agreed on. The French health ministry said it expected 600,000 Moderna doses in February, down from 800,000 it had expected.

AstraZeneca published its contract with the EU in redacted form on Friday.