Pfizer and BioNTech Stepping Up Doses of 2B Coronavirus Vaccine Temporarily Cut Deliveries to EU and Canada



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Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech said they were increasing vaccine production to 2 billion doses this year. There’s a catch, though: Scaling up a factory in Belgium to help meet this goal means supplies will temporarily run out in Europe, Canada and elsewhere.

BioNTech unveiled a factory upgrade late last week that will allow the company and Pfizer to deliver “significantly more doses in the second quarter” but will require a short-term supply disruption. The disruption will affect Europe, Canada and a few other countries, reports the Wall Street Journal. The companies say deliveries will return to normal from next week.

The manufacturing upgrade will start boosting production in mid-February, BioNTech said, leading to more deliveries in the first quarter and “a lot more in the second quarter.” Last week, companies raised their production target for 2021 to 2 billion doses from an earlier target of 1.3 billion doses.

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RELATED: BioNTech Brings COVID-19 Vaccine Production to 2 Billion Doses in 2021 – And Plans for a Bigger Label Also

The return to the news came quickly. Six EU countries have written in a letter to businesses that the situation is “unacceptable”, reports Reuters.

“Not only does this have an impact on the planned vaccination schedules, but it also diminishes the credibility of the vaccination process,” the letter said, according to the press service.

Meanwhile, the German government said Pfizer was not meeting a “binding commitment” on its delivery schedule, reports the WSJ.

Still, the partners “are working tirelessly” on scaling, BioNTech said in a statement, “not only by increasing their own manufacturing capabilities, but also by adding other suppliers as well as contract manufacturers to. increase total manufacturing capacity.

RELATED: BioNTech Purchases Novartis Plant for COVID-19 Vaccine, Ocular Capacity Up to 750 Million Doses

Across the Atlantic, deliveries continue to the United States and halt in Canada, according to various reports. In Ontario, Health Minister Christine Elliott said “Pfizer is retooling its plant in Belgium” so Ontario “will see its supplies cut for a while,” as quoted. the Toronto Sun.

Some municipalities are changing their immunization plans in response, reports GlobalNews.ca. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the effects of the disruption would be “enormous,” according to the Sun. He called on the Government of Canada to put pressure on Pfizer to increase deliveries.

On the same day, BioNTech unveiled the upgrade, the biotech was granted permission to start manufacturing the vaccine at a German plant it bought from Novartis in September, Hessenschau (German) reports. The Marburg site employs 300 people and is expected to produce up to 750 million doses per year, according to German media.

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