Germany’s BioNTech rushes to increase vaccine production – Manila Bulletin

German company BioNTech said on Friday it was rushing to increase production of its Covid-19 vaccine in Europe, to fill the “gap” left by the lack of other approved vaccines.

The vaccine developed by BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer was the first to be approved in the European Union in late December.

Countries such as Great Britain, Canada and the United States have previously approved the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and have since also given the green light to injections from the American firm Moderna or Oxford / AstraZeneca, leaving the EU inoculation campaign behind.

“The current situation is not rosy, there is a hole because there is an absence of other approved vaccines and we have to fill this gap with our vaccine,” BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly.

Criticism of the slow launch of vaccines in Europe has increased in recent days.

In Germany, where the focus has been on vaccinating the elderly in nursing homes, senior doctors have complained that hospital staff are waiting for their blows despite being in priority groups.

– ‘Basket of suppliers’ –

France has seen similar complaints, prompting the government to announce that healthcare workers over 50 could receive the vaccine starting Monday, earlier than originally planned.

Part of the problem is that the EU placed a relatively low order for 300 million doses for its 27 member states, and the contract was signed only in November, later than other countries.

BioNTech founder Ozlem Tureci, who is also Sahin’s wife, told Spiegel that the EU had assumed that there would be “a basket of different suppliers” to choose from, given the global race to develop a coup to end the pandemic.

“This approach makes sense. But then at some point it became clear that many couldn’t deliver quickly. “

Sahin said BioNTech was aiming to bring a new manufacturing plant into operation in the German city of Marburg in February, “much earlier than planned,” which should then be able to produce an additional 250 million doses in the first half of 2021.

Tureci said they had also reached agreements with five pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe to increase production and negotiations with other specialized companies are ongoing.

“By the end of January we should be clear about what and how much more we can produce,” Sahin said.

BioNTech and Pfizer initially aimed to deliver 1.3 billion doses worldwide this year, enough to immunize 650 million people.