EU to receive 12.5 million doses of BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine by year-end

ZURICH / FRANKFURT (Reuters) -BioNTech and U.S. drug maker Pfizer will deliver 12.5 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union by the end of the year, the German company said on Tuesday.

That’s more than half of the 20 million doses that are expected to be delivered to the United States before the end of the year, BioNTech chief commercial officer Sean Marett said in a briefing.

With two injections given three weeks apart, EU deliveries would be enough to vaccinate 6.25 million people as companies prepare to deliver the first vaccines after regulatory approval on Monday.

The 27 EU member states that want the shots will receive them within five days, Marett said in a briefing.

The German biotech company plans to start production in February at its site in Marburg, Germany, CFO Sierk Poetting said in the same briefing.

He said previously that the facility, which it bought in September, would eventually have an annual production capacity of up to 750 million doses.