Italy has blocked the export of around 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine to Australia after the drug manufacturer failed to meet its European Union (EU) contract commitments. The move by Italy, unprecedented in the EU, was made in line with a new European mechanism on export controls, and was taken with the support of the European Commission.

The mechanism was introduced in January amid a row with AstraZeneca after the pharmaceutical company said it would deliver fewer vaccines than planned to the EU. In January AstraZeneca reduced its supplies to the EU in the first quarter to 40 million doses, down from 90 million envisaged in the contract, and later told EU states it would cut deliveries by a further 50 per cent in the second quarter, Reuters reports.