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Two vast facilities the size of a football field equipped with hundreds of large freezers in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Puurs, Belgium, will be the centers of the massive effort to ship the coronavirus vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the company. German biotech BioNTech, around. the world.
Governments are rushing to prepare for the launch of the vaccine, which must be stored at -70 ° C (-94 ° F), after the two companies announced that it was more than 90% effective and had no serious side effects. . The news has sparked hopes for a return to normal life and a stock market rally, but now minds are turning to the practicalities of getting the vaccine quickly to populations around the world, especially vulnerable people who are affected by it. they need more.
Nick Doyle, CEO of Kroll risk consultancy, said: “It will be a huge challenge. We have a duty to take care of international populations. The poorest countries in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia, will find this challenge “.
Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the news of the vaccine was exciting but “portends significant cold chain challenges for African countries.”
Toby Peters, a professor of cold economics at the University of Birmingham, echoed these comments, saying: “The problem is particularly acute in the global South, where many rural villages do not even have a functioning vaccine refrigerator.”
After gathering more data from clinical trials, Pfizer and BioNTech plan to seek emergency approval for the vaccine from the United States and other regulators later this month and plan to begin shipping the vaccine to other countries in December.
There will be 100 million doses destined for the US, 200 million in the EU and 40 million in the UK. Countries in South America and the Asia-Pacific region have also pre-ordered the vaccine. Pfizer plans to deliver 50 million doses globally by the end of this year and an additional 1.3 billion doses next year.
The Kalamazoo and Puurs centers have already prepared hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine. Other “freezer farms” in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, and Karlsruhe, Germany are ready to provide additional storage capacity.
From there, the vaccine will be transported in suitcase-sized storage boxes packed with dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) that have been specially designed by Pfizer. The reusable boxes can hold between 1,000 and 5,000 doses each and keep them at ultra-cold temperatures for up to 10 days. Pfizer said its vaccine can be stored for up to five days in refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 ° C.
The boxes, which are tracked by GPS, will allow Pfizer to ship the vaccine faster: 24 trucks a day are expected to transport them from Kalamazoo and Puurs to airports, moving approximately 7.6 million doses per day.
Logistics companies UPS, FedEx and DHL are also preparing to handle vaccines that require cold storage. UPS built two freezer farms, one in the Netherlands and one in the United States, to house a total of 600 freezers that can each hold 48,000 vials of vaccine at temperatures as low as -80 ° C (-112 ° F). DHL also opened a new refrigeration facility, in Indianapolis, and FedEx added freezers and refrigerated trucks.
Germany plans to create 60 special vaccination centers equipped with ultra-low temperature freezers. In the UK, the Department of Health and Welfare said it has provided medical practices an additional £ 150 million to support the vaccine launch in the coming months.
Other coronavirus vaccines under development will not need to be stored in ultra-cold temperatures, including that of US company Moderna, which can be stored at -20 ° C (-4 ° F), similar to home freezers.
Vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson of the United States, AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford, France’s Sanofi and the British drug manufacturer GSK, should be stored and shipped in a non-frozen state.
Gian Gandhi, from the supplies division of UNICEF, the largest vaccine buyer in the world, said that UNICEF and WHO have installed more than 40,000 refrigerators to store vaccines in low-income countries, mainly in Africa. , in the last few years. UNICEF has also purchased hundreds of millions of syringes and is stocking them in UNICEF-controlled warehouses ready to be shipped to countries once Covid-19 vaccines are available.
The Covax alliance of governments, global health organizations and businesses aims to deliver 2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines worldwide by the end of 2021.
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