A note of hope after the cold shower on Friday.
The American group Pfizer, associated with the German laboratory BioNTech, announces this Saturday a "plan" to limit to one week the delays in delivery of the vaccine against the Covid-19.
The day before, he unexpectedly announced that he could not provide the countries of the European Union with the weekly quantities that he had undertaken to deliver, because of "certain changes in production processes".
"Pfizer and BioNTech have developed a plan that will increase manufacturing capacity in Europe and provide many more doses in the second quarter," said the two companies on Saturday in a joint statement.
The return to normal is expected “from the week of January 25, with an increase in deliveries starting the week of February 15.
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The EU was already preparing to cut dose deliveries for “three to four weeks”.
France was also considering "adjusting the pace of vaccinations" because of this "sharp drop", a source within the executive confided on Friday evening.
The factory in Puurs, Belgium, in slow motion
To justify this slowdown, Pfizer and BioNTech are waving their target of 2 billion doses in 2021. “To achieve this, we are increasing our industrial capacities in order to increase the yield and the number of doses available.
This involves modifying our processes and our facilities, which will require specific regulatory authorizations, ”Pfizer said in a press release sent to Le Parisien.
The Pfizer factory in Puurs, Belgium, will therefore be idling “over the next week”.
However, the laboratory promises to respect the announced deadlines.
The increase in deliveries scheduled for February 15 "will allow us to deliver the total quantity of vaccine doses expected in the first quarter and a much larger quantity in the second quarter," Pfizer continues.
Pfizer and BioNTech, who are "working tirelessly" to ensure a just-in-time vaccine campaign, promise to inform "the European Commission, EU member states and other affected countries" of these schedule changes.
