COVID-19: EU countries offered €12.7bn worth of fake COVID19 jabs

European Union Parliament. /Xinhua

Fraudsters are trying to cash in on mistakes made by the EU's coronavirus vaccination campaign by offering millions of scam jabs to member states.

The bloc's anti-fraud agency OLAF said around 900 million fake vaccines have been pitched to several countries for €12.7bn (£11bn).

These offers were said to be made by "alleged intermediaries", prompting OLAF to investigate.

Pharmaceutical companies involved in making vaccines against the pandemic say they sell to governments direct only.

The 27-nation bloc has struggled to get its vaccination programme off the ground, taking longer to initially approve the jabs and running into procurement issues further down the line.

On Thursday, leaders were scheduled to discuss via videoconference further action on the bloc's strategy, as well as how best to protect their 450 million citizens from new COVID-19 strains.

(With input from agencies)