Novartis in New Agreement With BioNTech to Help Manufacture Covid-19 Vaccine

By Cecilia Butini

Novartis AG said Thursday that it has signed a new agreement with BioNTech SE to support the production of the company's and Pfizer Inc.'s Covid-19 vaccine at one of its facilities.

The Swiss pharma major said it will support the fill-and-finish operations of the vaccine, meaning the transfer of the vaccine substance into vials under sterile conditions.

It will do so at its facility in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and will begin operations in the first half of 2022, Novartis said. At least 24 million vaccine doses will be filled there, the company said.

The agreement follows another one which was signed earlier this year and which had Novartis filling and finishing more than 50 million doses at its site in Stein, Switzerland.

Write to Cecilia Butini at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-21-21 0143ET