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Saxony-Anhalt: Dessau wants to become a vaccine hub

2021-02-27T15:55:19.063Z


The stumbled vaccination start made it clear: Germany needs more of its own production facilities for vaccines. In Saxony-Anhalt, companies are preparing for the future.


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Vaccination disaster, vaccination sequence, vaccination pass: Germany's way out of the pandemic has so far been so bumpy because not enough vaccine is available.

Even if Europe had ordered more aggressively, the vaccines would be absent elsewhere.

One lesson from this: More production facilities are needed.

Precisely these efforts are already underway in Saxony-Anhalt.

The area aims to become the largest vaccine production center in Europe.

In Dessau, IDT Biologika is currently filling the corona vaccine from the British manufacturer AstraZeneca.

Jürgen Betzing, Managing Director IDT Biologika:

“I think IDT has a huge advantage.

We have everything under one roof.

Starting with the active ingredient production, then filling the active ingredient into small bottles, into small jars, the visual inspection, i.e. each jar is then visually inspected to see whether it contains particles or anything else or would be present.

And then finally the packaging. "

In the future, IDT will also produce the AstraZeneca vaccine.

But building capacities does not happen overnight.

The new systems at the headquarters should be ready by the end of 2022.

Then the company says it could manufacture tens of millions of vaccine doses every month.

Against the coronavirus - or future dangerous pathogens.

Jürgen Betzing, Managing Director IDT Biologika:

"You can now see a great example, the strategic partnership between AstraZeneca and IDT, in order to ultimately take precautionary measures and be prepared if another pandemic arises or if there is a really quick need for drugs or is necessary."

Only 50 kilometers south, in Brehna, the company Dermapharm has been producing the Biontech corona vaccine since October.

IDT also received 140 million euros from the federal government for the development of its own vaccine.

The direction of attack from politics is clear: Germany should be prepared for future crises by being able to manufacture large quantities of vaccine itself.

In addition, it could turn into a lucrative export business.

Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister Saxony-Anhalt:

"Even if everything levels out globally in normal fairways, it makes sense, as in the energy industry, to maintain certain strategic capacities, also subsidized by the state, so that you can fall back on them in an emergency."

Germany wants to become a vaccine hub: In future, international pharmaceutical companies will have production facilities in Halle, Frankfurt, Reinbek, Wuppertal and Dresden - above all Biontech in Marburg.

From now on, 750 million vaccine doses are to be produced there - every year.



And so the large-scale development of vaccine production for Germany could really be worthwhile - especially after the corona pandemic.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-02-27

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