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In the past few weeks, the vaccine shortage has been the dominant issue.

But meanwhile there are signs of a change for the better.

Several manufacturers want to expand their production volumes, and with Johnson & Johnson and Novavax there are even two more promising candidates in the starting blocks.

This could also help Germany to increase the pace of immunization of the population after the start of the vaccination has failed.

Moderna started this week.

The US company announced on Thursday night that it wanted to expand its existing capacities.

The effects for this year are relatively manageable with 100 million doses to a total of 700 million doses worldwide.

But the expansion should come into full effect in the coming year at the latest and the production volume should increase to 1.4 billion cans.

Moderna is currently testing a vaccination booster

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There are two main reasons why Moderna still produces significantly fewer vaccine doses overall than competitor Biontech.

For one thing, the company has not yet teamed up with a large industrial partner of the format of a Pfizer or Bayer group.

On the other hand, Moderna's vaccine contains 100 micrograms, significantly more mRNA than the competing product from Biontech (30 micrograms) or even that from CureVac (twelve micrograms).

Moderna therefore has to use significantly more raw materials to produce its vaccine.

But in this respect too, the situation could possibly relax in the future.

The company is currently testing the effectiveness of a so-called vaccination booster with a dosage of only 50 micrograms, which is intended to serve as a booster vaccination against new virus variants.

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This booster could in future be vaccinated alone or in combination with the previous vaccine, depending on which variant proves to be more effective in clinical tests.

“If our vaccination booster requires a lower dose of around 50 micrograms, then we could even have an output of more than two billion vaccine doses in 2022,” said CEO Stéphane Bancel.

If the company reallocates all of its production to the lower-dose booster, the possible production volume would even increase to 2.8 billion cans.

So far, Moderna has delivered 60 million vaccine doses worldwide, including 55 million in the USA.

So there is still room for improvement.

Johnson & Johnson is on the home stretch

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The Mainz-based company Biontech also announced the start of a clinical study this week.

The main aim is to test the safety and effectiveness of a third dose of the company's own vaccine Comirnaty as a booster vaccination against newly emerging variants of Sars-CoV-2.

The aim is to “lay the foundations today to be able to tackle the challenges of tomorrow,” said Biontech boss Ugur Sahin.

"We want to be prepared for different scenarios."

Meanwhile, with the vaccine from the US company Johnson & Johnson, the next vaccine against the coronavirus is already on the home stretch.

Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it classified the vaccine as safe and effective.

The effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing severe courses of Covid 19 disease is estimated at 85 percent.

The vaccine does not have to be refrigerated at extremely low temperatures

If you also include the moderate cases, the effectiveness is 66 percent.

The protective effect is somewhat weaker, namely only 57 percent, compared to the variant of the virus that is mainly circulating in South Africa.

For comparison: For the vaccine from Biontech, the European Medicines Agency EMA estimates the protective effect against symptomatic courses of Covid-19 at around 95 percent, for that from the British manufacturer AstraZeneca at almost 60 percent.

There is much hope in the new Johnson and Johnson vaccine

The vaccination rate in Germany must be increased significantly.

The federal and state governments are in agreement on this point.

Above all, there is great hope for the approval of the new vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

Source: WELT / Sandra Saatmann

The great advantage of the J&J vaccine is its simple logistics: the vaccine, which, like the AstraZeneca product, is based on so-called vector technology and uses an adenovirus as a carrier, does not have to be refrigerated in extremely freezing temperatures.

In addition, unlike the previously available vaccines, only a single injection is required, which makes immunizing large population groups much easier.

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It is anticipated that the FDA could issue emergency approval for the vaccine later this week.

The manufacturer has also already submitted an application for conditional market approval for the EU.

Last year, the EU Commission ordered 200 million cans from the US manufacturer and agreed an option for 200 more.

For Germany, 37.25 million cans have been planned from this first contingent.

Novavax relies on older vaccination technology

The vaccine from the US manufacturer Novavax is currently attracting a lot of attention.

The company first published data from the clinical trials at the end of January.

Accordingly, the protective effect of the vaccine is around 90 percent.

Rolling approval processes are ongoing at several supervisory authorities, including the EMA.

However, there is still no firm sales contract with the EU.

The company has been negotiating with the EU Commission since December 2020 about the delivery of 100 million cans and the option of 100 million more.

In contrast to the vaccines that have already been approved, Novavax relies on a much older vaccine technology, such as that used in vaccines against hepatitis or herpes zoster.

"Its ease of manufacture enables it to produce very large quantities, on the order of two billion doses per year, and storage in a normal refrigerator enables pharmacies to be involved in mass vaccination," said Gregory Glenn, Novavax's research director , now in an interview with “La Repubblica”.

If the vaccine, like that of J&J, gets through the approval quickly, five vaccines would already be available in the fight against Covid-19.

How the previously rather bumpy vaccine logistics in Germany cope with the organization of five different vaccines is another matter.

So far the discrepancy in vaccination between the federal states is relatively large.

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In particular, the distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been slow so far.

While Rhineland-Palatinate has already inoculated a good 38 percent of the British vaccine delivered, in Saxony it is only a good five percent.

At this rate, the vaccination turnaround is likely to be a long time coming.

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