Moscow, Mar 14 (Agency) The German biotechnology firm BioNTech has set up an alliance of 13 firms designed to speed up the production of the coronavirus vaccine it develops jointly with the US company Pfizer to compensate for the shortages of doses, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported.
BioNTech negotiated with such companies as Swiss Novartis, German Merck Group, and French Sanofi, which are Pfizer’s rivals in the vaccine development, to join the project among other firms. The talks on the initiative were conducted in coordination with Pfizer.
Overall, BioNTeach envisages the production of 2 billion doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 for the deliveries in 2021 within the framework of the new partnership. The companies engaged in the alliance would participate in all stages of vaccine production. The alliance will produce nearly half of the global volume of the active ingredient supply for the vaccine. In early February, BioNTech said that it had planned to produce 2 billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine in 2021 due to an increased global demand. Notably, Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first to be authorized for use in the European Union, which launched a mass vaccination campaign in late December 2020. However, the companies have faced criticism from several member states of the bloc over their vaccine supply cuts due to reported production capacity issues.