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The bearer of hope is preparing for the breakthrough …
Mainz biotech company Biontech buys a production plant in Germany. The company’s vaccine will be produced at the Novartis plant in Marburg when it is ready.
A total of up to 750 million doses will be produced, 250 million doses in the first half of 2021 alone. A total of three of the four steps in vaccine production will take place in Marburg. The production plant has 300 employees. Furthermore, Biontech wants to continue producing at its locations in Idar-Oberstein and Mainz. Together with its partner, the company could produce a total of 1.3 billion doses of vaccines per year at all production sites.
The Marburg plant was founded in 1904 by Emil-von-Behring. Among other things, the antidote for diphtheria and tetanus was developed and manufactured here. Today it is a state-of-the-art production facility fully equipped for the production of cell and gene therapies.
The company is working on a so-called mRNA vaccine, a gene-based vaccine. Biontech has been testing it in humans since July and is in the final phase of clinical studies, a combined phase II / III. Overall, tolerance will be demonstrated in 29,000 test subjects at 129 study centers.
The company expects to see results in late October or early November. The vaccine approval application will then be submitted in both the US and Europe. Biontech hopes to be able to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine in 2020.
Vaccines are generally tested in three phases in volunteers (see chart). With the development of the corona vaccine, these phases can be combined, to have a vaccine available even faster than usual.
Just this Tuesday the federal government announced that Biontech would receive 375 million euros to develop a corona vaccine.
