Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE face another dynamic problem as they are heading towards making safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccines. Experts claim they are facing trouble on efficiently distributing tens of millions of doses to all parts of the planet while ensuring that they stay in ultra cold storage until fit for usage.
Exactly how cold? As with the first vaccination, the green light is supposed to be provided at minus 103 Fahrenheit. That's about four times colder than your home fridge and it's much colder than Antarctica during winter.
Pfizer's Positive News
According to The Straits Times, the pharmaceutical companies are still planning to administer the vaccine after reporting promising interim results on Monday, November 9. Their vaccine candidates were 90 percent successful in preventing COVID-19.
Before it may begin shipping vaccinations to anyone deemed most in need by the department, Pfizer and BioNTech need to get authorities to sign off on the injection. The healthcare professionals and persons residing in nursing homes may avail the vaccination shots first before anyone else, WeForum reported.
However, the shots will spoil at normal refrigeration temperatures of slightly above freezing in about five days. Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, told Reuters the companies are analyzing whether they can extend it for two weeks.
Vaccine on ice
The complicated and super-cold storage specifications of the vaccine impede to even the most advanced hospitals in the United States and which influence where and when it is accessible in remote areas or developing countries where supplies are extremely limited.
Because of the vaccine's complicated storage requirement, which often needs to be super cold (-70ºC / -94ºF) or below, bringing the vaccine shot to the public might not be as easy.
Amesh Adalja, the senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Protection, said that while supplying the vaccine, the cold chain would be one of the major hurdles Pfizer and BioNTech would face.
In all conditions, this would be a problem because hospitals do not have storage facilities for a vaccine at the ultra-low temperature, including in major cities, "the Adalja continued."
According to the study, the most prominent US clinics, such as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, still lack services.
Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic virologist and vaccine expert, reported that they do not have the facility and commented that the vaccine's storage provision is a "tremendous logical challenge" not just in the United States but even worldwide.
Working on Solutions
Pfizer spokeswoman Kim Beckner confirmed, however, that the two firms behind the widely awaited COVID-19 vaccine are collaborating with the US government to find a solution for shipping and delivering the vaccine nationwide, as well as to Belgium, Germany, and the rest of the world.
In the ultra-cold conditions it takes, the Pfizer dosages can be stored for up to six months. But according to Beckner, the vaccines can be kept in typical storage facilities located in hospitals from two to eight degrees Celsius. However, the vaccinations should only be kept there for five days until they are destroyed.
Also, Beckner said that for up to 15 days, Pfizer storage units could be refilled with ice.
BioNTech and Pfizer are focusing on whether the vaccine's shelf life in common forms of refrigeration used in most hospitals may be prolonged by up to two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidate is still among the frontrunners, although the shots do not need the ultra-cold storage requirement relative to Pfizer's, but it is also unclear whether the dosages of Moderna would gain FDA clearance.
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