BioNTech Expands mRNA Manufacturing to Singapore to Demand Covid-19 Vaccine and Increase Swelling – Endpoints News

In the race to turbo-charge its Covid-19 vaccine, BioNTech is taking root in Singapore. The location will house BioNTech’s regional headquarters in Southeast Asia and will be a key driver of the German drug manufacturer’s plans for Covid-19.

The facility will be equipped to manufacture a wide range of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics, from the treatment of infectious diseases to cancer, in addition to Covid-19’s collaboration with Pfizer. The facility will have a fill capability and an annual capacity of several hundred million doses of an mRNA-based vaccine.

Construction work on the facility is scheduled to begin this year. The office is due to open later this year. The facility is expected to go online in 2023 and create up to 80 jobs. The Germany-based company opened its US headquarters in Cambridge, MA in 2020.

Following complications related to rare but dangerous blood clots related to J & J’s vaccine and similar reports related to the AstraZeneca vaccine, demand for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines has declined sharply. Moderna recently announced a series of moves to boost production, as it has committed 3 billion cans per year from 2022.

Sierk Poeting

In April BioNTech’s CFO, Sierk Poetting, said in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper that the company had held talks to boost production while demand was there. At the beginning of this year, the company opened a new location in Marburg, which it had bought from Pfizer. In an interview with Bloomberg TV in April, CEO Ugur Sahin said the companies could increase their production capacity to 3 billion cans in 2022.

The company, known as Pfizer’s silent partner in the Covid-19 vaccination process, announced in late March that it was forecasting vaccine sales of $ 11.5 billion. Pfizer has forecast it will take home $ 15 billion, while Moderna has forecast $ 18 billion. With these proceeds, BioNTech can accelerate its cancer drug pipeline. Three programs are expected to enter Phase II trials.

BioNTech has also signed an agreement with Chinese drug maker Fosun Pharmaceutical to provide a factory that will produce up to 1 million doses of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. This brings China one step closer to local production of the drug, reports Reuters.

Five Chinese vaccines are currently used in the country, but no foreign vaccinations have been approved by domestic regulators. The move comes when BioNTech said it expects approval from health officials in China by July. The two companies will each have a 50% stake, and BioNTech has agreed to license its manufacturing technology to Fosun.

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