NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE had produced over 70 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday.
“At the end of the last week of 2020, for example, we had already manufactured more than 70 million doses and we had released from there – because there’s a quality control that you need to release – around 50 million doses. Then we manufactured more the first week of January,” Bourla said. “Right now I think we’ve released 33 million doses. And we have, let’s say, half of what we have manufactured sitting on the shelves.”
BioNTech said on Monday the companies were boosted the 2021 delivery target for their COVID-19 vaccine to 2 billion doses, up from 1.3 billion previously, as they add new production lines and as more doses can be extracted per vial.
(Reporting by Michael Erman)
