BioNTech Starts Production of COVID Vaccines at New German Site, Increasing EU Supply

COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNTech BNTX,
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started production at a new site in Germany, in an approach that will help alleviate a shortage of supplies of the shot developed with Pfizer PFE,
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The factory will produce mRNA, the active ingredient in the shot, which will then be purified and concentrated, before being delivered to partner sites for completion. “The first vaccines produced at the Marburg site are expected to be delivered in early April,” BioNTech said in a statement Wednesday. The lot will require approval from the European Medicines Agency. BioNTech has acquired the site of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis NVS,
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last year as part of a goal to increase production of its shot to 2 billion this year. The plant has the capacity to produce up to 750 million doses of vaccine per year. The European Union has been criticized for a slow roll-out of vaccination, made worse by delays in delivery from pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca AZN,
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AZN,
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and Pfizer in European factories. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted on Wednesday that the EU was slow to allow the use of vaccines. “We are still not where we want to be,” von der Leyen said at a plenary session of the European Parliament.