Weekly Commentary: Friend At Pfizer Not Enough: Possible Export Restrictions Make Local Vaccine Production Capacity Critical For Israel
Dr. Aaron Lerner 20 March 2021

Legislative moves in the European Union could very well prevent European-based vaccine manufacturers from exporting their product in the next round before they meet Europe's own needs. Similar limits may be imposed on American-made supplies.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has talked about the possibility of Pfizer getting involved in opening a production facility here but there is a huge difference between cutting a deal to BUY vaccines and PRODUCING vaccines here in Israel.

Producing these vaccines in Israel, which are based on a completely different technology than what we already have, means setting up a new facility with all the red tape that this involves.

We are talking about the possibility of needing another round of vaccine within 2021. Under normal circumstances it would take longer than that just to complete the preparation and review of an environmental impact study for a building permit for such a facility in Israel.

Immediate action must be taken to develop and implement an emergency program to have the vaccine production facility up and running in considerably less than a year.

Why do I fear that Mr. Netanyahu hasn't done this?

If there was such a program in place, we would be hearing about it in the election campaign!
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