BioNTech & Pfizer to boost production of vaccine doses to 2bn

BioNTech and Pfizer have said that they are planning an additional 500 million Covid-19 vaccine doses than previously planned in 2021, due to a new factory in Germany and the changing of European rules which allow for an extra shot to be taken from each vial.

The two companies had initially pledged to produce 1.5 billion doses this year but now say it will be as many as 2 billion, according to a statement from BioNTech.

The revised production total "is based on continuous process improvements and expansion at the current facilities, and contingent upon adding more suppliers as well as contract manufacturers," the statement said.

Also read: EU Regulators Give Green Light For Moderna Vaccine Rollout

As well as the increased production from the new factory in Marburg, Germany, which is due to begin operations next month, supplies in Europe have been boosted by a decision last week by the EU drug regulator to follow the US and UK and allow a sixth dose to be extracted from each vial. Under the previous licensing rules, the containers could only be extracted into five doses in the EU but healthcare workers reported that there was still material left in the vials which was being wasted.

BioNTech says it has shipped nearly 33 million doses so far from six facilities in Europe and the US. The vaccine has received approval from regulatory authorities in the UK, US, EU, and over 40 other countries.

The projections for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine now far outpace those of Moderna, which has estimated it can produce between 600 million and 1 billion doses this year.

Through working with a big pharma partner in Pfizer, BioNTech has been able to upscale its production more quickly and effectively than Moderna, which would have to consider investing large quantities of money on a Covid vaccine trial or new manufacturing facility than a company like Pfizer.

More than 1 billion of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine doses to be produced this year have already been sold.

The companies are still holding discussions with the WHO's Covax programme about supplying the vaccine to the developing world, though so far no agreement has been reached.

The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine must be kept at a temperature of -70°C during transportation, which makes the logistics more difficult in parts of the world where no established cold-chain infrastructure exists.

Also read: Covid vaccine supply chain targetted by hackers, warns IBM

Although the companies have advised the best protection comes from administering the vaccine in two doses 21 days apart, several countries, beginning with the UK, have said that they will delay the second dose so to give more people their first dose as soon as possible.

While this is not supported by either BioNTech or Pfizer, data from Phase III trials of the vaccine - which involved over 43,000 participants in six countries - showed that recipients gained partial protection from the virus in as little as 12 days following the first dose.

Germany's health ministry has asked the country's vaccine commission to "to review and evaluate the available data and studies and to issue a recommendation on this issue", while President-elect Joe Biden's team said they are looking at a similar scheme in the US.

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