Filipino nurse Monette Villaraza gets China's Sinovac vaccine for COVID-19 under a government program at a school in Quezon City, Philippines, Tuesday March 30, 2021. Philippine officials placed Metropolitan Manila and four outlying provinces, a region of more than 25 million people, back to a lockdown Monday at the height of the Lenten and Easter holiday travel season as they scrambled to control an alarming surge in coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)A nurse fills a syringe with COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination site in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, March 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2020, file photo, students wearing face masks work on computers at Tibbals Elementary School in Murphy, Texas. A new poll from The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most parents fear that their children are falling behind in school while at home during the pandemic (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)People draw hearts on the National Covid Memorial Wall, which is being painted in memory of the more than 145,000 people who have died in the UK from coronavirus, on the Embankment in central London, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (Luciana Guerra/PA via AP)A health worker takes a nasal swab sample of a Kashmiri to test for COVID-19 in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. More than 50,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases across the country to 12 million, according to the Union health ministry on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)A nun wearing a face mask stands next to her baggage at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)Medical workers tend to a patient affected with the COVID-19 at the Amiens Picardie hospital, Tuesday, March 30, 2021, in Amiens, 160 km (100 miles) north of Paris. The number of patients in intensive care in France on Monday surpassed the worst point of the country's last coronavirus surge in the autumn of 2020, another indicator of how a renewed crush of infections is bearing down on French hospitals. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)A sign urging safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic is seen in Teesto, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation on Feb. 11, 2021. Teesto workers, health representatives, volunteers and neighbors keep close tabs on another to ensure the most vulnerable citizens get the help they need. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)Dr Tenaye Desalegn from the Eka Kobe General Hospital, receives a dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, in Addias Ababa, Ethiopia, Saturday, March 13, 2021, after the launch of the vaccine in Ethiopia. (AP Photo/Samuel Habitat)A worker uses a machine to pack boxes of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses during an official visit by Belgium's King Philippe to the Pfizer vaccine production site in Puurs, Belgium, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (Stephanie Lecocq, Pool via AP)People sit on the grass in the Vauban park in Lille, northern France, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. The number of patients in intensive care in France on Monday surpassed the worst point of the country's last coronavirus surge in the autumn of 2020, another indicator of how a renewed crush of infections is bearing down on French hospitals. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Filipino nurse Monette Villaraza gets China's Sinovac vaccine for COVID-19 under a government program at a school in Quezon City, Philippines, Tuesday March 30, 2021. Philippine officials placed Metropolitan Manila and four outlying provinces, a region of more than 25 million people, back to a lockdown Monday at the height of the Lenten and Easter holiday travel season as they scrambled to control an alarming surge in coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
German pharmaceutical company BioNTech says that after ramping up its manufacturing and supply systems, it expects to manufacture this year up to 2.5 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine it developed with U.S. partner Pfizer.
The two companies had previously spoken of being able to make 2 billion doses in 2021.
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Mainz-based BioNTech said Tuesday that it had delivered 200 million doses of the vaccine globally as of March 23 and signed orders for 1.4 billion doses for delivery in 2021. Discussions on further orders were ongoing, it said.
The company attributed the increased capacity to optimized production processes and the start of production at a new plant in Marburg, Germany; the expansion of its manufacturing and and supply network; and regulatory approval for six doses to be drawn from each vial, rather than five.
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