IDT Biologika and AstraZeneca establish strategic partnership for vaccine production

Vaccine manufacturer IDT Biologika will jointly invest in additional production capacities at its headquarters in Dessau with pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca. The two companies signed an agreement to this effect last Friday. Details of the cooperation will be determined in the coming weeks.

Overall, IDT Biologika will spend a three-digit million-euro amount on the capacity expansion. This includes the installation of up to five 2,000-liter bioreactors which, in the medium term, can produce tens of millions of doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine or other vaccines with a similar manufacturing process per month.
IDT Biologika will thus have the largest manufacturing capacity of this type in Europe. The new assets are expected to start operating by the end of 2022. The extent to which AstraZeneca will participate in the investment, and in what form, is subject to ongoing negotiations.

Jürgen Betzing, IDT Biologika’s Chief Executive Officer, comments: “We are proud that AstraZeneca has selected us as a strategic partner for vaccine production. This decision underscores our high level of expertise in the manufacture of sophisticated vector-based vaccines and our ability to offer the entire process, from drug substance through to fill & finish and secondary packaging, from a single source. I would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Health for its support in reaching this agreement, which marks a good day for Germany and Europe.”

Source: idt-biologika.com