When Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine begins production, Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group Co. will be ready for its distribution. The company will distribute it under a complex and expensive system through deep-freeze airport warehouses, refrigerated vehicles and inoculation points. After arriving at the vaccination centres, the doses of the vaccine will be melted at -70 ° C and then injected within five days or else they will worsen. The thing to keep in mind is that this process will have to be done twice because after one month another booster will also have to be given.
Why mRNA vaccine delivery is difficult?
The company has licensed the vaccine for Greater China. The roadmap it has prepared shows how big a challenge it is. None of the vaccines yet to be made has been made from mRNA. This vaccine prepares the human body to produce proteins that produce protective antibodies. Because of this, deep-freeze production, storage and transportation networks are needed so that the vaccine can last for a long time. The biggest impact of this will be that the countries that will be financially strong will complete this whole process. For this, due to the necessary investment and coordination, it may reach only the urban population.
First opportunity is for rich?
Sheng Ding, director of Beijing’s Global Health Drug Discovery Institute, has said that the production of this vaccine is expensive, the parts needed to make it are unstable, will require cold chain transportation and remain true for a short time. With this, once again concerns have started rising that rich countries will get the best vaccine first. At the same time, poor countries will have to choose whether they want to build expensive supply-chains or wait for cheaper vaccines.
Challenge in front of rich countries too
Ding says that if there is a protein vaccine that can be delivered with the existing infrastructure, it will be chosen. Ding also says that such rich countries, which have already made deals for it, still face many challenges. In delivering the mRNA vaccine, if the truck broke down or the power went out, or the health care worker became ill or the ice melted, the vaccine would worsen. Rich countries will also have to spend billions of dollars to build this supply chain. Pfizer has orders from Japan, the US and the UK as well as countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
Source- NBT
