FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany – The German firm BioNTech said on Friday that it was increasing 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 at the end of December.
Countries, including Britain, Canada and the US, have previously approved the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and have since relieved the shots fired by the US firm Moderna or Oxford / AstraZeneca, which has left behind the EU vaccination.
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“The current situation is not rosy, there is a hole because there are no other approved vaccines, and we need to fill this gap with our vaccine,” UN Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, told Der Spiegel weekly.
Doses of the Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Magdeburg, East Germany, on 27 December 2020. (Ronny Hartmann / POOL / AFP)
Criticism of the slow pace of introduction of European vaccines has intensified 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 their turn, even though they were in the priority groups.
France has seen similar complaints, prompting the government to announce that health workers over the age of 50 could get the chance from Monday – earlier than originally planned.
Part of the problem is that the EU has placed a relatively low order of 300 million doses for its 27 member states, and the contract was only signed in November later than other countries.
BioNTech co-founder Ozlem Tureci, who is 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 end a pandemic. .
“Such an approach makes sense. But at some point it became clear that many would not be able to deliver quickly, ‘she said.
This video recording was taken from a live stream by the German biotechnology company BioNTech during their press conference to give an update of their COVID-19 vaccine development program on 22 December 2020 at their headquarters in Mainz, West Germany, show (LR)’s chief operating officer and commercial officer Sean Marett, co-founder and scientist of BioNTech Ozlem Tureci, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, and chief financial officer Sierk Poetting. (BioNTech / AFP)
Sahin said BioNTech plans to launch a new manufacturing plant in the German city of Marburg in February, ‘much earlier than planned’, which could then fend off an additional dose of 250 million in the first half of 2021. .
Tureci said it had also agreed with five pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe to increase production, and that negotiations with other specialized companies were continuing.
“By the end of January, we should have clarity on what and how much more we can produce,” Sahin said.
BioNTech and Pfizer initially planned to deliver 1.3 billion doses worldwide this year, enough to immunize 650 million people, as each person needs two shots to reach the maximum vaccine.