Overview
- BioNTech announced planned closures weeks ago that put roughly 540 jobs at its Marburg vaccine facility at risk, a plant opened in 2021 that still makes COVID-19 shots.
- The issue was raised in the Hessian Landtag on Thursday, May 21, where Economics Minister Kaweh Mansoori said the state has entered talks with company leaders, the works council and trade unions.
- Mansoori said discussions focus on strategic reserves and resilience, reflecting concern that losing the site would reduce Germany’s ability to quickly scale vaccine production in a future health emergency.
- The state has offered to help attract an investor for the Marburg site and to ease or speed permitting so any new operator can start work quickly, but no sale or deal has been announced.
- If the plant closes, the immediate impact will be on local workers and the Marburg economy, and longer term it could shrink domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity, a point central to the Landtag debate and wider policy discussions.