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Packages with Biontech vaccination doses
Photo: RONNY HARTMANN / AFP
The Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer have entered into a partnership to produce their corona vaccine in Latin America.
To this end, they signed a letter of intent with the Brazilian biopharmaceutical company Eurofarma Laboratórios SA.
Under the agreement, Eurofarma will source the vaccine from plants in the United States and begin manufacturing the ready-to-ship doses in the coming year.
At full operating capacity, the annual production capacity will be more than 100 million cans, the statement said.
All of these cans would only be distributed in Latin America.
"Everyone should have access to life-saving Covid-19 vaccines - regardless of their financial situation, origin, religion or the country in which they live," said Pfizer boss Albert Bourla.
The partnership with Eurofarma helps to »continue to guarantee fair and equitable access to our Covid-19 vaccine«.
The global network of Biontech / Pfizer now covers four continents and more than 20 production sites.
Biontech boss Uğur Şahin emphasized that so far more than 1.3 million doses of the corona vaccine have been delivered in more than 120 countries or regions.
By the end of the year it should be three million cans.
WHO criticizes distribution of vaccines
Organizations such as the World Health Organizations (WHO) repeatedly complain that poor countries have far fewer and much later corona vaccination doses than rich countries.
In this context, the WHO asked at the beginning of the month that the administration of a third corona vaccine dose to refresh the vaccination protection should be avoided for the time being.
On Wednesday, Biontech and Pfizer announced that they had submitted a supplementary application to the US Food and Drug Administration for full approval of a corona booster vaccination for people aged 16 and over.
To this end, they submitted data from a phase 3 clinical study in which 306 subjects between the ages of 18 and 55 received a third dose of the vaccine.
After that, their antibody titers were 3.3 times as high as in people who were vaccinated with only two doses.
In the coming weeks, the companies also want to submit the data to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other regulatory authorities.
hej / AFP