The German company BioNTech, one of the main competitors in the race to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, reported this Thursday on the purchase of a large establishment to rapidly increase the production of its vaccine, once it receives the green light from the FDA. of the US and the EMA of the European Union, according to a report by the AFP agency.
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The firm said it had agreed to acquire a “state-of-the-art” production facility in the western German city of Marburg from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.
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“This acquisition reflects BioNTech’s commitment to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity in order to supply a potential vaccine worldwide with authorization or approval,” CFO Sierk Poetting said in a statement.
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The purchase of this large plant will increase the production capacity of the potential vaccine by up to 750 million additional doses per year, or more than 60 million doses per month, “once it is fully operational,” the statement added.
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In conjunction with pharmaceutical company Pfizer, BioNTech has created a vaccine candidate that is already in phase 3, being tested in some 30,000 volunteers in various parts of the world. At the moment only eight other possible vaccines have reached this stage.
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Before announcing the purchase of this large manufacturing facility, BioNTech said it planned to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 if its vaccine is successful, and 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. The United States and other wealthy countries have announced long contracts to buy this possible vaccine.
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