AstraZeneca's initial EU delivery volumes of Covid-19 vaccine to fall short

Europe's Covid-19 vaccination drive was dealt another blow on Friday when AstraZeneca said initial deliveries to the region will fall short of the targeted volumes because of a production glitch.

"Initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain," a company spokesman said in a written statement, declining to provide details.

The slippage hits a European immunisation campaign that has already been hampered by a temporary shortfall in the supply chain of vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech , who are retooling a site in Belgium to boost output.

The EU Commission said Astra had informed the EU's vaccination steering board of a change of its delivery schedule and that the Commission was working to find out more.

While BioNTech's product, as well as a vaccine made by US...