Japan’s first doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine are coming from plants in the United States, the company said in an interview with the Asahi Newspaper.

The company had intended to import the undiluted vaccine from Europe until the imposition of export controls there, AstraZeneca’s head of vaccines in Japan Tomoo Tanaka said in an interview, according to Reuters.

Supplies of the vaccine will gradually shift to those made domestically by Japanese companies once regulatory approval is granted, expected in May, Tanaka said. He declined to say how much inventory of doses there are currently.

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