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- Drugmaker AstraZeneca has reportedly pledged to increase production to 2 million doses per week by mid-January, even as government vaccine deployments fall short of expectations.
- “The plan then is to build it up fairly quickly – by the third week of January we should get to two million a week,” an anonymous AstraZeneca member told The Times.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospitals and clinics in the United States took a “more measured” approach than expected when they began distributing the vaccines.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca has reportedly pledged to increase production to 2 million doses per week by mid-January, even as government vaccine deployments fall short of expectations.
“The plan then is to build it pretty quickly – by the third week of January we should hit two million a week,” an anonymous AstraZeneca member told The Times.
This would double current production.
Even as vaccine production accelerates, governments around the world have struggled to deliver on their promised deployment plans. Far fewer people than expected received the vaccine at the end of last year.
By the end of the year, only about 2.8 million vaccines had been distributed in the United States, a fraction of the expected 20 million, as hospitals and clinics took a “more measured” approach to distributing vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Many jurisdictions have planned for a more measured start to vaccinations, and I am delighted that 2.5 million people have initiated the vaccine and are on the way to being protected,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Vaccination Center and of respiratory illnesses from the CDC. during a press briefing.
She added: “I really expect these numbers to increase rapidly next week.”
In the UK, officials said Pfizer’s vaccine, which requires two injections, will be given 12 weeks apart, instead of the scheduled 21 days, according to BBC News.
The number of vaccine doses promised in 2021 is staggering and steadily increasing.
Pfizer, along with its partner BioNTech, said last week that it would provide an additional 100 million doses to the European Union this year, bringing its total to 300 million.
This brings its total production planned for 2021 to 1.3 billion vials of Comirnaty, the name it has been given for its COVID-19 vaccine.
“We remain committed to acting as quickly and safely as possible to bring this vaccine to more people in Europe, as the deadly virus continues to spread at an alarming rate,” said Albert Bourla, President and CEO of Pfizer, in a press release.
The increase AstraZeneca reported to 2 million doses per week would be good news for the UK, which has contracts for 100 million doses.
About 530,000 doses of AstraZeneca will be available on Monday, with an additional 407,000 doses expected to be added soon, according to Channel 4 News. Early last year, the UK government pledged 30 million doses by September.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
Like the medicine from Pfizer, AstraZeneca also requires two injections. UK officials on New Years Eve said the two were interchangeable, but some medical professionals said mixing the two could be risky.
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