As vaccine nationalism deepens, governments pay to bring production home

DESSAU, Germany (Reuters) - In the German town of Dessau, one of the sites of the Bauhaus art school, an institute was set up in 1921 to mass-produce vaccines that later helped strengthen the German Democratic Republic. Exactly

100 years later, the site is gearing up to be a one-stop shop to produce COVID-19 vaccines for Germany's pandemic response.

It's just one example of a rash of efforts by governments across the globe to access fragmented vaccine production, after manufacturing setbacks deprived Europe

manufacturing setbacks deprived European Union members of drugs made on their own soil this year. From Australia to Thailand, states planning home-based vaccine plants are starting to reshape the industry.

The German venture has the backing of the regional government, as part of a national effort to secure supplies and add vaccines to Germany's exports. Saxony-Anhalt premier Reiner Haseloff said he believes Germany could become a swing producer of vaccines, in the same way that power companies maintain capacity for times of strong demand.

Ultimately, this is comparable to the energy industry, where the state also pays to keep power plants in reserve," Haseloff told Reuters. 

Unlike the United States, where the government's Operation Warp Speed began funding the expansion and retrofit of pharmaceutical manufacturing sites early in the pandemic, few countries globally have the option to commandeer factories. The German plan is one of more than half a dozen by governments around the world to avert shortages by supporting drug companies' local production. 

Some - including Australia, Brazil, Japan and Thailand - are setting up manufacturing partnerships with Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC. Elsewhere, Italy has pledged state backing for a public-private vaccine production centre, while Austria, Denmark and Israel plan a joint research and development fund and will explore whether to produce their own next-generation vaccines.

India plays a significant role in vaccine production globally, and the United States, Japan and Australia also plan to help finance vaccine production capacity there, a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters.

The moves aim to address a global shortage of doses. With vaccines key to restart economies, some countries have pre-purchase agreements to secure their supply.

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