MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish pharmaceuticals company Reig Jofre will be able to produce 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine a year at its new factory without cancelling any existing contracts, it said on Friday.
The company’s new plant in Barcelona is under construction and due to start operating in the second quarter of 2021, Reig Jofre said in a statement.
As part of a contract the European Commission is negotiating with drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech for their COVID-19 vaccine, which has proven more than 90% effective in trials, Spain would receive 20 million doses.
Reig Jofre CEO Ignasi Biosca had said in the summer that the company was ready to invest an additional 2-3 million euros to adapt its new plant for the final step in the production process of putting the COVID-19 vaccine into vials or syringes, such as guaranteeing the low temperature needed to preserve the vaccine.
The company, which manufactures and conditions antibiotics, injectables and other healthcare products, also said that nine-month net profit more than doubled to 5.3 million euros on sales of 170 million euros.
($1 = 0.8466 euros)
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Joan Faus; Editing by David Goodman)
