Page 34 - HOH

A12 HEALTH
Friday 29 January 2021
EXPLAINER: Why it’s hard to make vaccines and boost supplies

By LAURAN NEERGAARD is sending kits that include
AP Medical Writer the special syringes with
With demand for COVID-19 each Pfizer shipment.
vaccines outpacing the Pfizer also said its factory
world’s supplies, a frustrat- upgrade in Belgium is short-
ed public and policymak- term pain for longer-term
ers want to know: How can gain, as the changes will
we get more? A lot more. help increase worldwide
Right away. production to 2 billion dos-
The problem: “It’s not like es this year instead of the
adding more water to the originally anticipated 1.3
soup,” said vaccine spe- billion. Moderna likewise re-
cialist Maria Elena Bottazzi cently announced it will be
of Baylor College of Medi- able to supply 600 million
cine. doses of vaccine in 2021,
Makers of COVID-19 vac- up from 500 million, and
cines need everything to that it was expanding ca-
go right as they scale up pacity in hopes of getting
production to hundreds of to 1 billion. But possibly the
millions of doses — and any easiest way to get more
little hiccup could cause doses is if other vaccines in
a delay. Some of their in- the pipeline are proven to
gredients have never be- work. U.S. data on whether
fore been produced at the In this Friday, Jan. 22, 2021 file photo, empty vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are Johnson & Johnson’s one-
sheer volume needed. seen at a vaccination center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas. dose shot protects is ex-
Associated Press
And seemingly simple sug- pected soon, and another
gestions that other facto- a little ball of fat. with killed coronavirus. than expected “yields,” or company, Novavax, also is
ries switch to brewing new Making small amounts of One thing all vaccines output, at some European in final-stage testing.
kinds of vaccines can’t mRNA in a research lab is have in common: They manufacturing sites. OTHER OPTIONS
happen overnight. Just this easy but “prior to this, no- must be made under strict More than in other indus- For months, the chief vac-
week, French drugmaker body made a billion doses rules that require specially tries, when brewing with bi- cine companies lined up
Sanofi took the unusual or 100 million or even a mil- inspected facilities and fre- ological ingredients, “there “contract manufacturers”
step of announcing it would lion doses of mRNA,” said quent testing of each step, are things that can go in the U.S. and Europe to
help bottle and package Dr. Drew Weissman of the a time-consuming neces- wrong and will go wrong,” help them crank out doses
some vaccine produced University of Pennsylvania, sity to be confident in the said Norman Baylor, a for- and then undergo the final
by competitor Pfizer and its who helped pioneer mRNA quality of each batch. mer Food and Drug Admin- bottling steps. Moderna, for
German partner BioNTech. technology. WHAT ABOUT THE SUPPLY istration vaccine chief who example, is working with
But those doses won’t start Scaling up doesn’t just CHAIN? called yield variability com- Switzerland’s Lonza.
arriving until summer — and mean multiplying ingre- Production depends on mon. Beyond rich nations, the
Sanofi has the space in a dients to fit a bigger vat. enough raw materials. Pfiz- HOW MUCH IS ON THE WAY? Serum Institute of India has
factory in Germany only Creating mRNA involves er and Moderna insist they That varies by country. a contract to manufac-
because its own vaccine is a chemical reaction be- have reliable suppliers. Moderna and Pfizer each ture a billion doses of As-
delayed, bad news for the tween genetic building Even so, a U.S. government are on track to deliver traZeneca’s vaccine. It’s
world’s overall supply. blocks and enzymes, and spokesman said logistics 100 million doses to the the world’s largest vaccine
“We think, ‘Well, OK, it’s Weissman said the enzymes experts are working directly U.S. by the end of March maker and is expected to
like men’s shirts, right? I’ll don’t work as efficiently in with vaccine makers to an- and another 100 million in be a key supplier for devel-
just have another place to larger volumes. ticipate and solve any bot- the second quarter of the oping countries.
make it,’” said Dr. Paul Of- AstraZeneca’s vaccine, al- tlenecks that arise. year. Looking even further But some homegrown ef-
fit of Children’s Hospital of ready used in Britain and Moderna CEO Stephane ahead, President Joe Biden forts to boost supplies ap-
Philadelphia, a vaccine several other countries, Bancel acknowledges that has announced plans to pear hobbled. Two Brazil-
adviser to the U.S. gov- and one expected soon challenges remain. buy still more over the sum- ian research institutes plan
ernment. “It’s just not that from Johnson & Johnson, With shifts running 24/7, if on mer, reaching enough to to make millions of doses
easy.” are made with a cold virus any given day “there’s one eventually vaccinate 300 of the AstraZeneca and
DIFFERENT VACCINES, DIF- that sneaks the spike pro- raw material missing, we million Americans. Sinovac vaccines but have
FERENT RECIPES tein gene into the body. cannot start making prod- Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla been set back by unex-
The multiple types of COV- It’s a very different form of ucts and that capacity will told a Bloomberg confer- plained delays in shipments
ID-19 vaccines being used manufacturing: living cells be lost forever because we ence this week that his of key ingredients from
in different countries all in giant bioreactors grow cannot make it up,” he re- company will actually wind China. And Bottazzi said
train the body to recognize that cold virus, which is ex- cently told investors. up providing 120 million the world simultaneously
the new coronavirus, most- tracted and purified. Pfizer has temporarily doses by the end of March has to keep up produc-
ly the spike protein that “If the cells get old or tired slowed deliveries in Europe — not by speedier produc- tion of vaccines against
coats it. But they require or start changing, you for several weeks, so it tion but because health polio, measles, meningitis
different technologies, raw might get less,” Weissman could upgrade its factory workers now are allowed to and other diseases that still
materials, equipment and said. “There’s a lot more in Belgium to handle more squeeze an extra dose out threaten even in the midst
expertise to do so. variability and a lot more production. of every vial. of the pandemic.
The two vaccines autho- things you have to check.” And sometimes the batch- But getting six doses in- Penn’s Weissman urged pa-
rized in the U.S so far, from An old-fashioned variety — es fall short. AstraZeneca stead of five requires us- tience, saying that as each
Pfizer and Moderna, are “inactivated” vaccines like told an outraged European ing specialized syringes, vaccine maker gets more
made by putting a piece one made by China’s Sino- Union that it, too, will de- and there are questions experience, “I think every
of genetic code called vac — require even more liver fewer doses than origi- about the global supply. A month they’re going to be
mRNA — the instructions for steps and stiffer biosecu- nally promised right away. Health and Human Servic- making more vaccine than
that spike protein — inside rity because they’re made The reason cited: Lower es spokesman said the U.S. the prior month.”q