Turkey signs agreement with BioNTech for COVID-19 vaccine, initial doses to arrive soon

Turkey has signed an agreement with German firm BioNTech to secure 4.5 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine. According to Turkey's Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca, BioNTech will supply the initial 5,50,000 doses of its vaccine to Turkey by the end of this year or by early January. The agreement signed between Turkey and the pharmaceutical firm will also allow Ankara to increase the number of doses it has ordered to 30 million. 

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Koca, in a series of tweets, announced the details of the agreement and also thanked Turkish-German Professor Uğur Şahin for helping Ankara secure the deal. Uğur Şahin is the co-founder of BioNTech. "In eliminating the obstacles to the realization of this agreement, PROF. DR. Our teacher UĞUR ŞAHİN has great efforts. Turkey will remember him for his privilege. I thank him once again on behalf of our nation," Koca tweeted.

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Turkey's deal with Sinovac

BioNTech has developed a COVID-19 vaccine with its American partner Pfizer, which has already received approval in several countries including Britain, Canada, the European Union, and the United States. BioNTech's vaccine is not the first COVID-19 drug to secure a deal with the Turkish government as China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd has already signed an agreement to provide 50 million doses. Turkey, with a population of over 83 million people, will be able to administer the Chinese vaccine to 25 million citizens as it is given in two shots.

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Upon signing the deal with Sinovac, Turkey had said that it preferred the Chinese vaccine over others because it is made using the conventional method, which is proven and more reliable. Sinovac has developed the CoronaVac vaccine using the old method of injecting an inactivated particle of the same virus into the body to trigger an immune response. Meanwhile, BioNTech and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is made using a new and unproven method called messenger RNA (mRNA). Moderna has also used the same method. 

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