BioN­Tech CFO Sees Scope For Additional Pro­duc­tion Sites To Meet De­mand For COVID-19 Shots: Reuters

• Pfizer Inc's (NYSE: PFE) COVID-19 vaccine partner BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) is not ruling out further capacity expansion and new production facilities to meet the demand for the vaccine, reports Reuters.

• BNTX CFO Sierk Poetting said in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper, "there is still room for improvement. But that will ultimately also depend on demand".

• He said that if premises were available, BioNtech could build up additional production capacity in six months, adding that discussions were ongoing.

• BioNTech and Pfizer plan to produce 2.5 billion COVID-19 doses this year, of which 1.4 billion were already sold. The companies aim to raise production to 3 billion shots in 2022.

• A total of 300 million doses have been promised to the US.

• BioNTech in February had launched production at its new site in the city of Marburg, which it purchased from Novartis last year, raising its annual capacity by around 1 billion doses.

• The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine rollout was behind schedule at the beginning of this year, but then companies like Sanofi SA (NASDAQ: SNY) and Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) stepped up to help with production.

• This month, European Commission struck a third contract with the companies for 1.8 billion more doses between 2021 and 2023.

• Price Action: BNTX shares are up 0.64% at $157.17, and PFE shares are up 1.26% at $39.52 in market trading hours on the last check Wednesday.

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