Finland's health agency THL, pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and HUS Pharmacy have all denied that the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Finland, contradicting information provided earlier on Wednesday by Helsinki University Hospital district’s (HUS's) Director of Diagnostic Services Lasse Lehtonen.
"Yes, there must be some misunderstanding here. I also confirmed the matter with Pfizer and HUS Pharmacy," THL's Director of Pharmaceutical Wholesale Toni Relander said.
Lehtonen had said that a "significant amount" of the vaccine has already been delivered to the HUS, and the district was awaiting a marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) before the vaccine could be rolled out.
However, HUS Pharmacy's CEO Kerstin Carlsson confirmed that Lehtonen's claim about the arrival of vaccines was not accurate.
"We do not have any coronavirus vaccines as yet, not even a sample batch," Carlsson said.
Lehtonen told Yle on Wednesday evening that his earlier statements were indeed based on a misunderstanding.
"I misinterpreted the discussion about vaccine volumes at a meeting this morning. I thought we were also talking about vaccines that had already arrived into the country, even though it was in fact about the future," Lehtonen said.