Manufacturing Alliance to Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Production

The producers of the West’s first COVID-19 vaccine build a new manufacturing alliance that will provide a lifeline to Europe and the rest of the world amid a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines.

BioNTech SE, a German company, that has joined with Pfizer Inc. to manufacture and distribute its vaccine, has lined up an alliance of 13 companies, including Novartis AG, Merck KGaA, and Sanofi SA, in an effort to meet an ambitious target of making two billion doses of vaccine this year.

The European Union has been struggling with a shortage of vaccines as manufacturers, including British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca PLC, have fallen behind on their delivery pledges to the bloc.

The shortage has largely been limited to the European Union (EU), which was slower than its western allies in ordering and approving the vaccines, and it has raised tensions between the bloc, the U.K., and the U.S.

This could pose a challenge to BioNTech’s alliance as Its vaccine uses sophisticated new techniques that require scarce ingredients and expertise. This makes for a delicate supply chain that is vulnerable to the type of export controls, the EU, the U.K. and the U.S. have imposed in recent months, company officials have warned.