BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer will supply 12.5 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union by the end of the year, the German company said today.
That is more than half the 20 million doses expected to be delivered to the United States before the end of the year, BioNTech's chief business officer, Sean Marett, told a briefing.
With two shots administered three weeks apart, the EU deliveries would be enough to vaccinate 6.25 million people as the companies gear up to deliver the first shots following regulatory approval yesterday.
The 27 EU member states who want doeses of the vaccine will receive them within five days, Mr Marett told a briefing.
The company plans to start production in February at its site in Marburg, Germany, chief financial officer Sierk Poetting said in the same briefing.
It has said previously the facility, which it bought in September, would eventually have an annual production capacity up to 750 million doses.
Following the approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) yesterday and the European Commission today, Ireland is expected to start the roll-out of the vaccine in the 'coming days', with the first 10,000 doses due to arrive before the end of the year.
