BioNTech boosts production of anti-Covid vaccine, the only one authorized in the EU

Vials of BioNTech / Pzifer vaccine in the Marburg plant in Germany.

© Daniel ROLAND / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

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Critics are mounting in France and Germany on the slowness of the vaccination campaign which started in the European Union just after Christmas.

For now, only the vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech is authorized by Brussels, so the leaders of the German laboratory announce that they will increase their production capacity.

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BioNTech intends to run a new manufacturing unit in Marburg, Germany, starting in February.

It will be " 

much earlier than expected

 " assures Ugur Sahin, the

co-director of the laboratory

, in the

Spiegel

.

This should make it possible to produce an additional 250 million doses during the first half of the year.

This factory bought from Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, by the German laboratory will therefore support that of Puurs in Belgium.

For this, BioNTech has also entered into agreements with five pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe.

Others could be added to the list of production efforts.

Negotiations are underway.

The partner laboratory of the American Pfizer will have a clearer idea of ​​the number of doses that it will be possible to produce at the end of January.

Brussels placed an order for 300 million doses from Pfizer / BioNtech, but the contract was signed in November, later than other countries.

The European Union wanted to diversify its suppliers.

“

 Such an approach makes sense,

 ” according to Ozlem Tureci, co-founder of BioNTech.

But she adds that " 

at some point it became clear that many would not be able to make deliveries quickly

 ."

This would already require the European Union to validate other vaccines.

Towards two vaccines available in the European Union?

For their part, the vaccines of Astra Zeneca and Moderna have already obtained authorizations

in the United Kingdom

or in the United States.

That of Moderna should soon receive the European green light.

The drug agency's assessment meeting will indeed take place on Wednesday, January 6.

If approval is granted, then EU countries will have access to a different vaccine than that of Pfizer / BioNTech.

In any case, these two vaccines use a single technology: messenger RNA.

Their efficiency is compensated by a great fragility which requires heavy storage conditions.

It is for this reason that it would be interesting to have at least a third vaccine which uses a different technology, more traditional, simpler in logistical terms.

The one developed by Astra Zeneca meets these criteria, but the results of its clinical trials have left the European authorities somewhat unsatisfied.

Additional information is required before considering an authorization which will therefore not arrive until February, at best.

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  • Germany

  • European Union

  • Coronavirus

  • Health and medicine

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