(Adds details on IDT, European vaccination campaign)
By Francesco Guarascio and Ludwig Burger
Feb 10 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca is set to enlist
Germany's IDT Biologika as a contract manufacturer of its
COVID-19 vaccine, two people familiar with the matter told
Reuters, as Germany and the European Union seek to boost a
delayed immunisation campaign.
IDT Biologika, based in Dessau-Rosslau in eastern Germany,
produces viral vaccines for pharmaceutical companies, and has
suffered a recent setback in developing its own vaccine against
COVID-19.
IDT Biologika and AstraZeneca declined to comment.
IDT has previously said it was doing work for AstraZeneca on
the vaccine, which the British drugmaker is co-developing with
Oxford University, and one of the sources said the manufacturing
contract would specify and widen the collaboration.
The other source said the contract was for 18 months and for
production in Europe.
IDT's own experimental COVID-19 vaccine, co-developed with
the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), did not prompt
the hoped-for immune reaction in early-stage testing on humans,
resulting in a suspension of the trial last month.
Germany and other EU governments are under fire over a slow
start to vaccinations in the EU, as deliveries from Pfizer
and partner BioNTech as well as from
AstraZeneca fell short of projections.
The German regional state of Saxony-Anhalt, home to IDT,
said this month the company was in talk to produce Russia's
Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya institute.
One of the sources said those negotiations were ongoing.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger. Editing by Kirsti Knolle and Mark
Potter)
Astrazeneca (AZN)