AstraZeneca says it will deliver vaccines as promised, also to NL

British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca will deliver 180 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union in the second quarter as per the agreements, a spokesperson for the company said to NOS. That means that the Netherlands will get its promised 6.8 million doses in the second quarter.

Half of the promised vaccines will come from production lines in the EU. The rest will be produced elsewhere, the company spokesperson said.

On Tuesday evening, Reuters reported that the EU would get less than 90 million doses of this vaccine in the second quarter. The news agency heard this from an anonymous EU source involved int he negotiations with AstraZeneca. 

The Dutch Ministry of Public Health was told by the pharmaceutical that the Netherlands would get about 4 million doses in the second quarter, instead of the promised 6.8 million. This to the annoyance of Health Minister Hugo de Jonge.

"AstraZeneca is a very complicated company to make steady agreements with," he said. "There are constant changes in the delivery schedule. It drives you crazy. The deliveries ultimately determine the speed at which we vaccinate."