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Danish PM wants domestic Covid-19 vaccine production in 2022

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wants Denmark to produce its own Covid-19 vaccines from 2022. The state will work with the private sector to achieve that aim, she said.

Published: 27 April 2021 09:48 CEST
Danish PM wants domestic Covid-19 vaccine production in 2022
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wants the country to produce its own Covid-19 vaccines. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The government will call for the private sector to propose ways in which vaccines could be produced in Denmark before a bidding round on a contract is eventually opened, news wire Ritzau reported after Frederiksen gave comments to a number of media.

“Based on the dialogue we have had with the science sector recently, our view is that there is a basis to establish production in Denmark on commercial terms,” she told financial newspaper Børsen.

Frederiksen has described the issue of Covid-19 vaccines as a “national security” issue.

She did not specify which company’s vaccine she envisaged seeing production in Denmark. In comments to broadcaster TV2, the PM said that the technology used must be of the mRNA type used in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Denmark earlier this month withdrew the AstraZeneca vaccine, which uses a different technology, from its national programme due to concerns over rare but serious side effects. The Nordic nation is the only country to have completely withdrawn the vaccine.

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The PM did also not put a figure on the state investment in the project.

But a bid for the contract would have to be approved by parliament, TV2 reports.

A target of domestic Covid-19 vaccine production in Denmark next year is optimistic, according to the Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Lif).

“It is a sensible idea to test whether the market can deliver this if you believe (production) should happen here in Denmark,” the organisation’s business director Sofie Jensen told national broadcaster DR.

But the complexity of Covid-19 vaccine production meant such an arrangement could take some time, she added.

“From our side it is not realistic to be able to establish something like that as soon as 2022,” she added.

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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