A new partnership between
big pharma
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The Swiss laboratory Novartis announced on Friday that it had signed an agreement to help the production of Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine, in the face of the shortage.
The agreement, signed with the German group BioNTech, provides for Novartis to provide capacity to package the vaccine in vials at its site in Stein, near Basel, the Swiss group said in a press release.
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Subject to a definitive agreement, Novartis said, production is expected to begin in the second quarter, with first deliveries expected in the third quarter.
Novartis added without further details being in discussions with other pharmaceutical groups.
Details will be released once negotiations are completed.
Sanofi to start in July
On Wednesday, Sanofi also unveiled an agreement to produce, no doubt from July, the vaccine of its competitors Pfizer-BioNTech in the second half, "a first" in the pharmaceutical industry, while continuing research on its own vaccine.
Unlike its French competitor, Novartis is not in the vaccine race.
During a major reorganization of its activities in 2015, the Swiss group sold its vaccines to the British giant GlaxoSmithKline with the exception of its influenza vaccines which had been sold to the Australian laboratory CSL.
Novartis' production lines at the Stein site will make it possible to package the vaccines in a sanitized environment.