FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany – German company BioNTech said on Friday it was rushing to increase the 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 North American partner Pfizer was the first to be approved in the European Union in late December.
Countries like Britain, Canada and the United States approved the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine earlier and have since also approved injections from the American firm Moderna or Oxford / AstraZeneca, leaving the EU inoculation effort behind.
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“The current situation is not optimistic, there is a hole because there is an absence of other approved vaccines and we have to fill that gap with our vaccine,” BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly.
Doses of the coronavirus vaccine Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 at a vaccination center in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 27, 2020. (Ronny Hartmann / POOL / AFP)
Criticism of the slow launch of vaccines in Europe has increased in recent days.
In Germany, where the focus has been on inoculating the elderly in nursing homes, veterans have complained that hospital staff have been waiting for their vaccines, despite being in priority groups.
France has seen similar complaints, prompting the government to announce that healthcare professionals over 50 could receive the injection on Monday – earlier than originally planned.
Part of the problem is that the EU has placed a relatively low order for 300 million doses for its 27 member states, and the contract was only signed in November, later than other countries.
BioNTech’s founding partner, 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 develop a jab to end the pandemic.
“This approach makes sense. But then, at some point, it became clear that many would not be able to deliver quickly, ”she said.
This video capture taken from a live broadcast by the German biotechnology company BioNTech during its press conference to provide an update on its vaccine development program COVID-19 on December 22, 2020 at its headquarters in Mainz, western Germany , shows (LR) Chief Business and Commercial Officer Sean Marett, co-founder and scientist at BioNTech Ozlem Tureci, CEO and co-founder at BioNTech Ugur Sahin and CFO Sierk Poetting. (BioNTech / AFP)
Sahin said BioNTech intended to start a new factory in the German city of Marburg in February, “well ahead of schedule”, which should be able to produce an additional 250 million doses in the first half of 2021.
Tureci said they have also struck deals with five pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe to increase production, and negotiations with other specialist companies are underway.
“At the end of January, we should be clear about what and how much more we can produce,” said Sahin.
BioNTech and Pfizer initially intended to deliver 1.3 billion doses worldwide this year, enough to immunize 650 million people, as each person needs two injections for the vaccine to reach its maximum effect.