Europe says to lead global COVID vaccine production by year end, targets "global immunity" by summer
26/03/2021 12:07
BARCELONA, March 26 (Reuters) - Europe should be the world
leader in producing coronavirus vaccines by the end of the year
with 52 factories taking part in the process across the
continent, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry
Breton said on Friday in Spain.
Breton also said Europe should have vaccinated enough people
in the summer, possibly around mid-July, to achieve a "global
immunity" level.
By the end of the year Europe should have capacity to
produce between two and three billion doses, the commissioner
said at the Barcelona plant of pharmaceutical company Reig Jofre
RJFE.MC which will produce Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N
coronavirus vaccine in the second quarter of the year.
(Reporting by Joan Faus and Ingrid Melander; Writing by Nathan
Allen)
((n.allen@thomsonreuters.com; +34 617 792 131;))