Sunday 17th January 2021
"Would basically be able"
Bayer examines entry into vaccine production
Bayer recently entered into an alliance with the biotech company Curevac to develop another corona vaccine. In the future, the pharmaceutical giant could also use its infrastructure to produce a vaccine. It is currently in talks with the authorities.
The pharmaceutical company Bayer is considering starting the production of corona vaccines. "We are discussing with Curevac and also with politicians and the authorities what can be done," Bayer boss Werner Baumann told "Welt am Sonntag". "With our production network in Germany and the USA and the appropriate lead time, we would in principle be able to produce vaccine in larger quantities. We are currently investigating this under high pressure."
It is not primarily about financial considerations, but about making the vaccine available as soon as possible. "We are ready to pull out all the stops," says Bayer. The primary consideration is to extend the agreement concluded with Curevac to production.
At the beginning of the month, Bayer and the Tübingen biotech company Curevac signed a cooperation and service agreement. Curevac has been developing the corona vaccine CVnCoV for a long time, for which the approval-relevant clinical phase III study began in mid-December. Curevac expects the first results towards the end of March. In the event of approval, the EU Commission has secured 405 million doses for the EU states.
Bayer should now take part in the necessary study for approval work and also keep an eye on the supply chains. The contract does not include the fact that the group will also take over production. In addition, Curevac remains the holder of a marketing authorization. Bayer would, however, have the option of becoming a holder of the approval in certain markets outside of Europe.
According to a report by the Robert Koch Institute on Saturday, a good one million people in Germany have received the first of two corona vaccination doses since the vaccination campaign began at the end of December. According to estimates, more than 60 percent of the population would have to be vaccinated in order to achieve so-called herd immunity against the novel coronavirus.
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