意大利总理朱塞佩·孔特1月23日就辉瑞公司和阿斯利康推迟交付新冠疫苗发出警告，称意大利方面将"动用一切可行法律手段"维权。此前，继美国辉瑞公司表示无法按时交付疫苗后，英国药企阿斯利康近日也告知欧盟，其第一季度的供货数量或将削减60%。

 

Italy will take legal action and step up pressure in Brussels against Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca over delays in deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines² with a view to securing agreed supplies, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.

 

The aim was to get the companies to meet the vaccine¹ volumes they had promised and not to seek compensation, Di Maio said on RAI state television.

 

"This is a European contract that Pfizer and AstraZeneca are not respecting and so for this reason we will take legal action... We are working so our vaccine plan programme does not change," he said.

 

Pfizer said last week it was temporarily slowing supplies to Europe to make manufacturing changes that would boost output. The EU has ordered 600 million doses from Pfizer.

 

On Friday, AstraZeneca said initial deliveries to the region will fall short because of a production problem. A spokesman for AstraZeneca said on Friday that "initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated" without giving further details.

 

Officials have not confirmed publicly how big the shortfall will be, but an unnamed EU official told Reuters news agency that deliveries would be reduced to 31m - a cut of 60% - in the first quarter of this year.

 

Asked why he thought the pharmaceutical³ companies had been forced to announce reductions, Di Maio said he believed they had simply bitten off more than they could chew.

 

"We are activating⁴ all channels so the EU Commission does all it can to make these gentlemen respect their contracts," he said.

 

No one was immediately available to comment at Pfizer in Italy. AstraZeneca did not immediately reply to an email and voice message.

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