[ad_1]
Friday, January 1, 2021
“Then it was too late for now”
Biontech boss surprises allowed EU
Thanks to the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine, millions of people have already been vaccinated in the US In the EU, by contrast, the vaccination campaign starts later and more slowly. Also because the vaccination doses are still too low. The Biontech boss sees the EU’s purchasing strategy as part of the problem.
The Mainz company Biontech is working under great pressure to develop new production capacities for the corona vaccine. “Right now things are not looking optimistic, there is a hole because there are no other approved vaccines and we have to fill this gap with our vaccine,” said the head of Biontech, Uğur Şahin, the “Spiegel”. But Germany “will get enough vaccines.”
The lack of vaccine is also related to the EU’s purchasing policy, Şahin said. “Many other companies were supposed to come with vaccines. Apparently the impression prevailed: we will get enough, not everything will be so bad and we have it under control. I was surprised,” said the head of Biontech.
The idea of the EU and other governments to put together a basket of different providers actually makes a lot of sense, explained Biontech’s chief physician Özlem Türeci. “At some point, however, it turned out that many of them cannot deliver on time. So it was too late to place large orders elsewhere.”
“Everything else so trivial”
According to “Spiegel”, the United States had obtained 600 million cans from Biontech / Pfizer in July, double that of the EU, which only placed the order in November. “The process in Europe was certainly not as quick and easy as it was in other countries,” Şahin said. “Also because the European Union is not directly authorized, but the states have a voice.”
Increasing production in the short term is “anything but trivial”: “It is not as if specialized factories around the world are idle and can produce vaccines of the required quality overnight.” Biontech has already “commissioned five manufacturers in Europe to support production,” Türeci said. “More contracts are being negotiated.”
Several politicians recently called for the production of vaccines to be significantly accelerated. FDP leader Christian Lindner called for the legal, economic, political and technological prerequisites for a “crisis production” to be created. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder also called for more speed in vaccine production.
