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Agencies:

COVID-19 update: Pfizer starts manufacturing thousands of Coronavirus vaccines

October 19, 2020

Hundreds of thousands� of doses of a potential Coronavirus vaccine have already been manufactured, it�s been revealed. The Pfizer jab is being stock piled en masse at the drug giant�s plant, Belgium and could be put in for approval in the U.S in November, reports said.

The Chief Executive of the German company partnering with Pfizer Inc. in its Coronavirus vaccine effort said the two are racing to increase production to meet the world�s needs.

The two companies are now scrambling to scale up their manufacturing capacities said Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech S E.
Both companies said they are confident they will be able to deliver all the doses they have already agreed to provide to Governments, including the U.S and the European Union.

BioNTech and Pfizer are among a handful of companies in advanced stages of testing their vaccine. They committed to supplying over 450 million doses this year and next year, contingent on late stage trials showing the vaccine to be safe and effective and Governments give the go ahead for its use.

The U.S Government placed an initial order of 100 million doses (10 crores), with the option to purchase 500 million additional doses. The European Union ordered 200 million doses with an option for another 100 million. The Government of Japan ordered 120 million doses and Britain ordered 30 million.

All orders are subject to regulatory approval and only the price of the U.S deal $ 1.95 billion has been disclosed so far.

BioNTech and Pfizer previously set a target to produce up to 100 million vaccines globally by the end of this year. Dr. Sahin didn�t break down where those first doses would go among its global government customers. That initial batch would only be enough for 50 million people, though, because the vaccine, known as BNT-162, consists of two shots, a so-called prime vaccination and a booster. The two companies haven�t disclosed how many doses they have already made.

After these promised doses are delivered, �then we will enter a struggle to provide it" more widely, Dr. Sahin said. �There are gigantic amounts of vaccine doses that need to be supplied to the people and this is a huge task which will take time."

Dr. Sahin said the two companies are ramping up production and building a global logistics network to continue supplying doses beyond those already sold. The German company said in September it had purchased a large manufacturing facility in the German city of Marburg from Novartis AG. The plant, Dr. Sahin said, is expected to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to 750 million doses a year by late 2021.