HERE. Impulse Magazine / Sustainability 2021

COMBATING THE CORONAVIRUS
The company is
responsible for
manufacturing
the vaccine and
putting it into
vials.
“The new investment is a response to market
requirements. As a global contract manufacturer,
we will soon be able to provide an even faster
and more flexible service for our customers. IDT
Biologika and the BioPharmaPark Dessau with its
other partners are in the process of becoming a
biopharma center in the heart of Europe.”
An established
partnership
Dermapharm produces vaccines
for BioNTech in Brehna
In order to contain the global coronavirus
pandemic, only one solution is available
to us: as many people as possible must be vaccinated
quickly. For the vaccine manufacturers,
this represents a mammoth task. The historic
company IDT Biologika in Dessau-Roßlau is
playing a central role in this process. It is currently
responsible for filling millions of vials with
COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of Astra-Zeneca
and Johnson & Johnson. The active ingredients
are delivered to IDT Biologika in frozen form,
then thawed and mixed with other substances
to form a vaccine. This is then placed in the vials,
inspected and labeled.
In the future, the company will also produce
the active ingredients itself. IDT Biologika is
currently investing 100 million euros for this
purpose in a new multi-functional vaccine
production building which has five production
rooms with fermenters that have a capacity of
up to 2,000 liters. This will enable IDT Biologika
to manufacture active ingredients for between
two and five million vaccine doses every week
from early 2023 onward, which is ten times its
current capacity.
“Over recent months, the global
demand for vaccine manufacturing
facilities has been
increasing exponentially. This
extensive investment program
is a continuation of our current
growth strategy and will create
the capacity and the innovations
that the global market
urgently needs,”
explains CEO Dr. Jürgen Betzing.
The historic company
IDT Biologika is based
in the BioPharmaPark
Dessau.
IDT Biologika is also involved in research into
coronavirus vaccines. In close cooperation with
the German Center for Infection Research, partners
at the Universities of Munich and Marburg
and the University Medical Center Hamburg, the
company is investigating a vector vaccine. The
application for approval for the active ingredient
will be submitted in early 2022, assuming that
everything goes to plan.
IDT Biologika employs around 1,600 people
at the BioPharmaPark Dessau. The company
specializes in the development and production
of virus vaccines, gene therapies, immunotherapies
and sterile liquids. IDT Biologika supports
its customers during product development, the
clinical phases and the commercial production
of products, including the manufacture of active
ingredients, filling and finishing services, packaging
and analytics.
The historic roots of the company go back to
July 1, 1921, when the Bakteriologische Institut
der Anhaltischen Kreise (the bacteriological
institute of the Anhalt region) was founded in
Dessau. The institute was initially devoted to
identifying and diagnosing tuberculosis and then
to research, development and manufacturing
of vaccines and serums to combat and prevent
infections in humans and animals.
idt-biologika.de
Over the last year, the consortium consisting of BioNTech
and Pfizer has developed and brought to market a coronavirus
vaccine in record time. Since the fall of 2020, the vaccine
has also been produced by mibe GmbH Arzneimittel in Brehna, a
subsidiary of Dermapharm.
Dermapharm also forms part of the global production network
that manufactures the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. The focus of the
vaccine manufacturing process at Dermapharm’s sites in Brehna
and Reinbek (Allergopharma) is on the mRNA lipid nanoparticles.
The company’s years of knowledge and expertise in the development
and production of sterile medicines enabled it to begin
production of the vaccine very quickly – in the fall of 2020 in
Brehna and in April 2021 in Reinbek. “Without our constructive
cooperation with BioNTech/Pfizer, our suppliers, our experienced
and highly dedicated employees and the relevant authorities,
none of this would have been possible,” says Dermapharm CEO
Dr. Hans-Georg Feldmeier.
The Brehna site with its 650 employees is central to the development,
production and supply of medicines and health products at
Dermapharm. Around 90 percent of all Dermapharm’s products
are made in its own plants and, in particular, at its main manufacturing
site in Brehna. The special feature of the site, which is what
makes it unique, is its versatility. Sterile medicines such as vials
and freeze-dried products, tablets, sugar-coated pills, capsules,
ointments, solutions, drops and sprays can all be produced under
one roof.
ir.dermapharm.de
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