The German BioNTech and American Pfizer laboratories are spending the second in the production of vaccines against Covid-19.
This Monday, the two partners promise 75 million additional doses of their product - called "Comirnaty" - for the European Union (EU), under existing contracts.
Another announcement: "Increase deliveries from the week of February 15," in order to provide "the amount of doses the duo (Pfizer / BioNTech) committed to in the first quarter", also said Sierk Poetting, director financier of BioNTech.
The double good news comes as the vaccination campaign is stalling across Europe, and the BioNTech / Pfizer plant in Puurs (Belgium) had to slow down production at the start of the year to modify its production lines. .
In all, the European Union has ordered 600 million doses from the German-American laboratory.
Avoid the "mess"
What do those who vaccinate say?
"This is necessarily good news: more vaccines, that means more people vaccinated", greets Hélène Rossinot, medical specialist in public health, who is also pleased that it is the vaccine from BioNTech / Pfizer, "the one that presents the highest efficiency rate
(Editor's note: 95%)
”, which is concerned.
But she tempers.
"This is good news ... if these vaccines are made available in the field, that is to say in hospitals and in vaccination centers," said Dr. Rossinot, recalling "the slight mess" that was the start of the vaccination campaign in France.
It aims in particular to change the schedule between taking the first and the second dose, initially set at three weeks, then at six, then, finally, three.
"Because of this change, to honor the second injections, we had to cancel appointments for the first", she regrets.
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However, with regard to the delivery schedule of the 75 million additional doses by BioNTech / Pfizer, Hélène Rossinot does not charge the laboratories, or even the health authorities: “Yes, the second quarter is far away.
But you don't make a vaccine in a snap!
"
The temporary slowdown in deliveries, which concerns BioNTech / Pfizer, but also the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca and the American Moderna, provoked in mid-January the irritation of several European governments - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden having expressed their "serious concern" in a joint letter.
Calendar concerns
So, the announcements of the giants of the pharmaceutical industry annoy Ludovic Toro, general practitioner in Coubron, a small town of Seine-Saint-Denis, of which he is also mayor (UDI).
“It's nice to announce millions more doses, but when exactly is the second half of the year?
"Annoys the doctor, who also emphasizes that" the fight against Covid-19 needs private companies to produce vaccines.
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But according to him, it is necessary to commit “on delivery dates as much as on quantities of doses produced.
"And to recall that in Seine-Saint-Denis, several vaccination centers, set up by the communities, could not open this Monday ... for lack of available vaccines.
“Those who operate in the vaccination campaign need a precise schedule of distribution of these doses, again tackles Toro.
We need to organize ourselves when it comes to people's lives.
"