UPDATE 1-Sweden pauses Pfizer vaccine payments, seeks clarity on doses - DN daily

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STOCKHOLM, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Sweden's Health Agency has paused COVID-19 vaccine payments to Pfizer and is seeking clarification over the amount of doses available in each vial, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported on Tuesday.

Sweden is seeking clarity on the number of doses it has been billed after Pfizer charged for six doses in each vial rather than the agreed upon five doses. Sweden now want the EU Commission and Pfizer to reach an agreement on how many doses there are contained in each vial. "Until then, we have told the company that we must wait with the invoices that are available until we get clarity on what applies," Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told Dagens Nyheter.

Pfizer Sweden declined to comment to Reuters on the report but told Dagens Nyheter it had charged for six doses per vial.

EU and Pfizer originally agreed that each vial contained five doses, but it was later discovered that six doses could be extracted if a special syringe was used.

"This is unacceptable. If a country only has the ability to extract five doses, it has received fewer doses for the same price," Sweden's vaccine coordinator Richard Bergstrom told the newspaper.

A Swedish Health Agency spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment on the report. The agency handles invoices related to COVID-19 purchases by Sweden. (Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Helena Soderpalm; editing by Niklas Pollard)