Exclusive: Inside the Facilities Making the World ’s Most Prevalent COVID-19 Vaccine

If you’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19, chances are pretty high that you’re benefiting from a product made by BioNTech. The German biotech company, co-founded by a husband-and-wife team of scientists, developed the vaccine that became not only the first to earn authorization in the U.S. for COVID-19 in December but also the first ever based on a new technology involving the genetic material mRNA. In interviews in December and March, co-founders Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci spoke about their whirlwind year and their partnership with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer to test and manufacture the vaccine. Over three days in late March, they also opened up their new manufacturing plant to TIME for the first step-by-step look at how their lifesaving, and potentially pandemic-ending, vaccine is made. Luca Locatelli for TIMEThe new BioNTech production facility is in a wooded valley in Marburg. Technicians working in one of the prep labs often spot deer roaming in the nearby forest. Luca Locatelli for TIMEThe machinery that acts as the heart of the vaccine-manufacturing facility, regulating the flow of gas, water, electricity, wastewater and more throughout the building in Marburg, where 400 employees working around the clock produce several million doses of the vaccine each week. Luca Locatelli for TIMEAs Quality Control Lab Manager, Witali Schmidt oversees the testing of all raw materials coming in, as well as the finished product going out. “The product produce...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Exclusive feature longform Magazine photography Source Type: news