The government of Peru said on 22 October 2020 that it refused to sign a COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreement with British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc (LON:AZN)(STO:AZN) because it did not provide sufficient data from its studies and offered minimal amounts of inoculations, Reuters news agency reported on Friday.

Peru's Prime Minister, Walter Martos, was quoted as saying in a news conference that the government had asked AstraZeneca for data from its vaccine studies, but that the firm had not sent the information.

"The other labs have caught up with us accordingly, however AstraZeneca has not." Martos said.

"They were offering us a very low quantity of vaccines compared with other laboratories that are offering us large quantities at lower costs," he added.

Reportedly, AstraZeneca planned to conduct trials in Peru.

According to Martos, despite a slowdown in the number of new infections in Peru, a second wave of the pandemic in the country is possible. The rate of infections and deaths from COVID-19 in Peru has reportedly been slowing since September 2020.

As of 20 October 2020, COVID-19 cases in Peru totalled 876,885, with 33,937 deaths.