Pfizer and Moderna will produce more than 500 million doses of the vaccine for the omicron variant of Covid-19. These are data from a report released yesterday by the British consulting firm Airfinity, which estimates that they will not be enough to meet the orders from different countries to these pharmaceutical companies.
Pfizer and his German partner BioNTech They are by far the manufacturers with the most distribution thanks to their messenger RNA Covid-19 vaccine. In the first quarter they obtained 13,227 million dollars in revenue from this product. It is followed by Moderna, with 5.92 billion also for its messenger RNA alternative.
The forecast is that the Pfizer/BioNTech consortium will produce around 2,553 million Covid-19 vaccines, of which 395 million are of the omicron variant. The consultant anticipates that these manufacturers can start the development of the new version from September. In this way, Pfizer and BioNTech will go from producing 170 million doses per month, to 187 million in September and up to 333 million from November. Since January, these companies have reduced production due to lower demand.
But there is a second scenario, that countries only want doses of the omicron variant. So, Pfizer/BioNTech would manufacture 2,158 million doses this year, of which 409 million will be of omicron and, as of November, all the injections manufactured (170 million per month), will be only of this version.
Similarly it happens with Modern, to which Airfinity predicts a production of 718 million doses this year, of which 113 million will go to omicron. In the event that countries only place orders for this variant, the total manufacturing of this US biopharmaceutical will remain at 580 million (see graph) and as of November it will only take this alternative out of its plants (47 million per month).
Many buyers in rich countries, such as the EU, have reduced or stopped purchases until September, as they have enough vials in stock, waiting for the clinical trials for omicron with volunteers to be successful and the health authorities to approve the second-hand versions. generation.
Pfizer/BioNTech have agreements with 24 countries and the EU to deliver 2.2 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine this year, of which more than a quarter have been delivered to date. Since these trade deals include an option to access future versions, demand for the new version could exceed 1.6 billion doses.
On the other hand, Moderna has orders from 13 countries, the European Union, the African Union and the Covax alliance for more than 800 million doses, most of which have not yet been delivered, suggesting a high potential demand for the second generation, according to Airfinity.
–
