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Wuppertal (dpa / lnw) - The pharmaceutical company Bayer wants to complete the vaccine, which it takes over as part of the Curevac cooperation, in Wuppertal.
“This is, so to speak, a Made in Germany product,” said Bayer Pharmaceuticals Board Member Stefan Oelrich on Monday in Berlin.
Only certain preliminary products would come from other locations.
Bayer and the Tübingen-based biotechnology company had already announced a cooperation on certain services at the beginning of January, and the expansion of the cooperation to include manufacturing has now been announced.
Bayer will use this to produce a vaccine for the first time in its history.
Bayer wants to produce at least 160 million Curevac Covid 19 cans in 2022, with more in the year after.
The Leverkusen company will take over part of the production - Curevac expects a total of at least one billion cans for the global market next year.
The preparation is still in the development stage, it could be approved in the summer and then vaccinated.
The first cans delivered by Bayer would not be ready until the end of this year at the earliest.
Like the competing products from Biontech and Moderna, the preparation is based on the new “messenger RNA” technology (mRNA).
Bayer board member Oelrich made it clear that the new business should not only be related to the current corona pandemic.
“We have decided to build up mRNA expertise on the production side in Wuppertal and to keep the corresponding capacities ready,” said Oelrich.
"Then we will see how this can be used in the future - the pandemic is certainly in the first place, but there may be other areas of application for this technology."
When asked how many new jobs were created in Wuppertal as a result of this company decision, Oelrich replied: "That is certainly an important contribution to employment."
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210201-99-256201 / 2