Berlin, Feb 11 (IANS): German pharmaceutical giant announced that it has started production of its Covid-19 vaccine at a new plant in the town of Marburg.

The first step was the production of mRNA, the active pharmaceutical ingredient of the Covid-19 vaccine BNT162b2 developed by BioNTech and American pharmaceutical corporation, Pfizer, reports Xinhua news agency.

"A single mRNA batch of the current scale is sufficient to produce around eight million vaccine doses," the company said on Wednesday.

BioNTech started the production of the drug substance after the Darmstadt Regional Administrative Council granted the new manufacturing permit for the converted facility in Marburg, north of the city of Frankfurt.

Once fully operational, the facility would become "one of the largest mRNA manufacturing sites in Europe" with an annual production capacity of up to 750 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the German company noted.

BioNTech is planning to produce up to 250 million doses of BNT162b2 at the facility in the first half of 2021.

The first vaccines produced at the Marburg site are expected to be distributed in early April.