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ANKARA, Dec 26 (Reuters) – BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said his company would be open to collaborating with others as it looks to increase production capacity for the COVID-19 vaccine. was developed by Pfizer and was considering opening an office in Turkey.
Sahin again BioNTech aimed to distribute 1.3 billion doses of its vaccine by the end of 2021 and require 70% of the world to be vaccinated next winter to return to “normal life”, according to an interview by Anadolu, which was run by Turkey. news agency.
“We want to make over 1 billion doses with Pfizer next year. We need to distribute them to over 80 countries, ”he said. “This is not easy. Vaccines are made in a complex way. We will start collaborating with other companies again, ”he said.
“If we can deliver on our plans for how we can increase our capacity, we can publish in January or February. I believe we can increase it. We don’t have a definite plan yet. ”
Ankara has agreed to purchase 4.5 million doses of the vaccine BioNTech and Pfizer, with the option to receive an additional 30 million doses at a later date.
Sahin, the son of a Turkish immigrant to Germany, said Anadolu BioNTech was in talks with the Turkish state scientific body Tubitak, and would aim to deliver the 30 million doses to the country by the end of 2021.
“It is a great pleasure for me to help people in Turkey,” Anadolu said as Sahin said.
“We also want to do research in Turkey. We have talks with Tubitak, we have started working with some professors at universities. We want to open a branch of the company BioNTech in Turkey, ”he said, adding that he hoped to begin clinical work on cancer research in the country in the summer of 2021.
Turkey has also agreed to buy 50 million doses of Sinovac China vaccine, CoronaVac, and the first shipment of 3 million doses of CoronaVac will arrive on Monday. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu Editing by Alexandra Hudson)