Pfizer Inc. and German biotechnology player BioNTech SE have raised their anticipated 2021 vaccine production from 1.3 billion to 2.0 billion, which is more than 50%, catering to the increasing global demand. BioNTech informed the same via a demonstrative presentation at a healthcare conference on 11 January 2021.
The firms, in various packs with different countries, have already said yes to provide more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine.
While the European Union in the past week, has asked to double its supply of Pfizer-BioNTech shots to 600 million, the US has asked for 200 million doses.
As per the media sources, the increased production forecast is the result of freshly opened production lines along with a major development in the vaccine distribution process.
The company is using the ‘low dead space’ syringe, which lets six doses of the vaccine to be extracted, opposite to the standard five. The new syringe restricts the amount of wastage in the administration of the vaccine, leaving the excess to be used on another patient.
In the Conference, BioNTech revealed that now, around 2 billion doses can be delivered by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that early testing results by Pfizer reveal that the vaccine is able to protect against the new variant of the coronavirus.
