08 Feb COVID-19 Vaccines: The race to immunity. Click to keep reading…
In just ten months, two pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer and Moderna) have received FDA approval for their vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the deadly virus that causes COVID-19. Fifty other prospective vaccines are making their way through the approval process. Thirteen of those vaccines are already in the human trial phase – the final phase prior to approval. While the initial focus on ending the pandemic fell on the scientists, the focus must shift in 2021 to the engineers. The challenge is the manufacture of billions of doses of new, highly complex biotech products, and how to distribute them to a very anxious world wide population. Even though the distribution seems very daunting, keep in mind that in 2019, brewers used applied microbiology to ferment, fill, package and distribute almost 50 billion bottles and cans of beer (in single-use units, most of it refrigerated).
Pfizer is mass producing their vaccine in assembly plants in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Puurs, Belgium. Pfizer owns warehouses full of ultracold freezers, to store its vaccine at -70 C. The vaccine is shipped in a custom built container that holds about 1,000 vials, and is protected by a layer of dry ice pellets. The box also contains a GPS enabled thermal sector that transmits the location and temperature as it moves through various distribution centers. UPS is building two warehouses full of deep freezers, and FedEx will store vaccines in Memphis, Indianapolis, and Paris. There are currently four ways to manufacture the leading COVID-19 vaccine, each with its own set of challenges. Leonard Friedland, director of scientific affairs and public health at GSK Vaccines said “No one manufacturer is going to be able to scale up and make enough doses for 7 billion people. So I hope they all work.” Pfizer has projected that it will make 1.3 billion doses of their vaccine by the end of 2021 (enough to protect about 650 million people). Moderna’s manufacturing partner, Lonza Group, is scaling up to deliver 100 million doses a year from its Portsmouth, New Hampshire facility, and another 300 million doses per year from a facility in Visp, Switzerland.
The logistics of the roll out are a global challenge. The vaccine is poured into glass vials that are packed in custom containers. Most vaccines must be kept cool at 2 C – 8 C, and RNA vaccines must be frozen at much lower temperatures. The containers must move across the world via planes and trucks, while sensors monitor their location and temperature. The doses must be distributed quickly to locations that have the facilities to store them, and the infrastructure to administer the doses within strict timelines. Since the Pfizer vaccine requires two doses to protect people adequately, that adds a layer of tracking and coordination to the success of the roll-out. Stacy Springs and Donovan Guttieres at M.I.T.’s Center for Biomedical Innovation have been collecting data about each step of the supply, production, and distribution chains for the COVID-19 vaccines. So far, Springs says, they have seen business and government cooperation to spot problems and solve them: “A lot of the manufacturers are already moving to dual sourcing of materials and putting in other safety nets, so that they’re not going to be in a position where they don’t have what they need.”
Learn more about the race to vaccination online at IEEE.org.
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