Pfizer vaccine production is increasing in Puurs

It was Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who announced the increase in production after visiting Pfizer-Puurs. This makes Pfizer-Puurs one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in Europe. Albert Burla, CEO of the pharmaceutical company, announced that from May onwards, 100 million Corona vaccines will be produced every month in Bor, which will also enable more vaccines to be delivered to the European Union.

Top priority

The American Medicines Group’s Belgian Vaccine Factory is on track to become one of the most important links in the production of covid-19 vaccines for the European Union and many other countries in the coming years. The American concern aims to produce 2.5 billion doses for this year and CEO Burla expects to take it a step further in 2022. Pfizer-Puurs will be responsible for a large part of this.

For the European Commission, the corona mRNA vaccine from the US-German partnership Pfizer / BioNTech has become a top priority. Von der Leyen said that an additional 1.8 billion vaccines will be ordered from Pfizer in the very near future. For 2021, the count so far is 600 million doses. The new supply contract will last until the end of 2023. It appears that the ongoing supply problems of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and discussions about its potential side-effect have prompted the European Commission to focus too much on the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

Reinforcement

According to Von der Leyen, additional vaccinations are needed to be able to administer “ booster doses ” (additional injections) until the end of 2023 and prevent variants of the virus. Thanks to these huge requests, the UNHCR chief added, adolescents and children will also be able to be vaccinated.

Von der Leyen also confirmed that vaccination in the European Union is proceeding at full speed. She said she was confident that there would be enough vaccines to vaccinate 70 percent of all adults in the European Union by the end of July. So far, the target has been September of this year.