The European Union is short about 10 million doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine that were due in December, according to EU sources.
This leaves the trading bloc about one-third short of the supplies it had expected by now from the US company. It is another blow to the EU, which has also been hit by delays in deliveries from Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and US company Moderna, and had also faced earlier delays on the Pfizer vaccine.
It also raises questions about the rationale of an EU vaccine export control scheme which was set up in late January to ensure timely deliveries but has not yet been activated, despite the supply shortfalls.