It will be difficult to produce an even larger amount of new Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines in the short term. That says BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin in an interview with the German weekly The mirror.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is currently the only approved vaccine in the European Union. As a result, demand for the Pfizer vaccine is high, but it is difficult to ramp up production any time soon: “It’s not that there are still unused factories around the world that we can use,” says Sahin.
Sahin is critical of the EU’s purchasing policy. The United States already ordered 600 million doses in July, while the EU only placed a (smaller) order in November and bet on more different vaccines. “The process in Europe was certainly not as quick and easy as in other countries,” says the CEO.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the EU has ordered an additional 100 million doses, bringing the total to 300 million vaccines. The Netherlands receives 3.89 percent of this, or almost 12 million doses.
At the end of January it should become clear how much extra the company can produce. The hope is that in February a new production line can be opened in Marburg, near Frankfurt.
Vaccine can be adjusted in six weeks
It is currently being investigated whether the Pfizer vaccine also provides sufficient protection against the mutated British variant of the virus. “We will soon know more about that,” says Sahin. If it is a strong mutation, he says it is possible to adjust the vaccine within six weeks.
Work is also currently being done on a way of making the doses easier to store. Now the vaccine has to be stored at a temperature of -70 degrees. Sahin expects that the next version of the vaccine can also be stored at higher temperatures. That version should be ready by the end of the summer.
–
