BioNTech sees scope for further capacity expansion: CFO

BERLIN (Reuters) - German COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNtech is open to further capacity expansion and the construction of new production facilities depending on demand, Chief Financial Officer Sierk Poetting said.

"There is still room for improvement. But that will ultimately also depend on demand," Poetting said in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper published on Wednesday.

Poetting said if premises were available, BioNtech could build up additional production capacity in six months, adding that discussions were ongoing.

"We have a lot of inquiries," the CFO said.

The Mainz-based biotech company and its U.S. partner Pfizer plan to produce 2.5 billion COVID-19 doses this year, of which 1.4 billion were already sold. The companies aim to raise production to three billion shots in 2022.

BioNTech in February launched production at its new site in the city of Marburg, which it purchased from Novartis last year, raising its annual capacity by around 1 billion doses.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; editing by Jason Neely)