After US authorisation of vaccine, BioNTech to tremendously intensify production
Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine
The United States approved the emergency authorisation of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine earlier today.BioNTech SE’s chief executive shed light on the company’s plans in terms of production, distribution, etc.
The vaccine, partnered by Pfizer and BioNTech is set to ramp up manufacturing to meet the growing demand. And with the approval, the trend is set to be replicated in other countries.
"We need to solve the manufacturing challenge," Ugur Sahin told Reuters."It is very clear that more doses are needed. And we are dealing with that question - how to produce more doses”, Sahin added. Next year, both the companies are expected to produce 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine. Earlier in the week, UK had become the first country to authorise use of Pfizer’s vaccine.
Sahin told Reuters that the vaccine is expected to receive approval for the European Medicines Agency by the end of December, after which it can carve out a plan for inoculation in the bloc.
BioNTech recently bought a plant from Novartis in Germany, which it intends to use to produce millions of doses. The plan is capable of manufacturing 750 million doses in a year.
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The company is expected to begin making the vaccine there in the first half 2021. Sahin added that they are looking to expedite the timeline. "The baseline plan is 1.3 billion doses," he said.
An extended plan is in the world. "And we are working on an extended plan. I can't tell you at the moment what is possible and how much we can expand the scale but we will try to do it significantly”, he told Reuters.
In the beginning, the supply of the vaccine will be limited to the US, where 330 million people reside.
So far, the US government has ordered 100 million doses of the two-dose vaccine by Pfizer, with more negotiations expected to take place. A Pfizer board member - Scott Gottlieb, during an interview on CNBC said that they had offered to produce doses of the vaccine, but the offer had been turned down by the government.
The Pfizershot - based on clinical data begins showing efficacy as early as 12 days. In fact, data suggests that many people had received protection from just the first jab.