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Re:EU blocks export of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Aust... by thehappypm on Thursday March 04, 2021 @04:01PM (#26348260)
BioNTech would have produced nothing without Pfizer.

Without BioNTech, Pfizer would have partnered with a different company (Moderna, Novavax, the list goes on..) and produced a vaccine.

I don't mean to understate the value of what BioNTech's research set Pfizer (and the world) up for, but without Pfizer there would be no BioNTech vaccine.

Re:EU blocks export of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Aust... by chmod775 on Thursday March 11, 2021 @06:36AM (#26422930)
> BioNTech would have produced nothing without Pfizer.

This is just factually incorrect. BioNTech had the capability to produce a vaccine on their own, but not at the scale they needed to. Nor would they have been able to handle distribution. Previously they were only producing various mRNA medication at a much smaller scale.

Pfizer was in a better position to run a large-scale study and create new supply chains at the scale that was needed.

The relationship between BioNTech and Pfizer is not unlike the one between an artist and a music label.

Re:EU blocks export of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Aust... by pgeorgi on Saturday March 06, 2021 @05:15AM (#26366468)
I guess Pfizer just made the best offer.

Without them, BioNTech might have partnered with some other pharma corp: Merck (the German company, not the US wartime spinoff) is headquartered 30 km from BioNTech, Sanofi has facilities 20km away and there are a few more around the block that have significant experience in both navigating regulatory frameworks and ramping up production.

In such a scenario, maybe they wouldn't provide 60% of EU shipments now (the numbers I have at hands), but "produced nothing" seems to lowball it.