COVAX vaccine 2021 delivery target cut to 1.425 billion doses

The COVAX vaccine-sharing facility will likely receive 1.425 billion doses of anti-COVID-19 shots from donor countries this year, down from a July estimate of 2 billion, the GAVI Vaccine Alliance said on Wednesday. Reasons for the cut include export restrictions on key supplier Serum Institute of India (SII), Gavi said in a joint statement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the World Health Organization and Unicef.

Manufacturing problems at Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca as well as delays in the regulatory review of shots developed by U.S. biotech firm Novavax and China's Clover Biopharmaceuticals were further limiting factors, the organisations said.