Ireland will receive an “immediate” vaccine boost after it was announced that a plant in Belgium will increase its output of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the European Union.
The news came as the European Medicines Agency confirmed it has recommended the approval of additional manufacturing of the vaccine at Pfizer’s plant in Puurs, Belgium. Ireland is due to receive its largest single shipment of vaccines so far tomorrow, as 280,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine are due for delivery. Ireland is expected to receive more than 1m doses of Pfizer throughout the month of June. The vaccine is sold under the trade name Comirnaty.
The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, said the news was a “very welcome step towards stepping up our manufacturing capacity within Europe”.
A component of the Pfizer vaccine will be produced in the company’s Dublin facility by the end of this year, it is believed. The move will result in the creation of approximately 75 jobs initially at the Walkinstown facility
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