Contribute to the preparation of EURACTIV reports.
Help us continue to provide loose, independent data from European capital
Food
digital
Economy and employment
Energy and the environment
Global Europe
Cheers
Politics
Conveyance
A Russian medical employee pulls a COVID-19 control vaccine from the refrigerator to prepare for a volunteer at a post-check-up phase at no. 68 outpatient hospital in Moscow, Russia, 17 September 2020. [Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA / EFE]
The medical government and governments around the world will not only have to adopt one or more of the approved COVID-19 vaccines, but they will also have to be able to achieve delivery logistics, which includes a gigantic bloodless chain, in all likelihood for temperatures such as low as -80 C, Writes Kostadin Fikiin.
Kostadin Fikiin is Project Manager R
The medical government and governments around the world will not only have to adopt one or more of the approved COVID-19 vaccines, but they will also have to be ready with delivery logistics.
IATA recently noted that offering a single dose to another 7. 8 billion people would fill 8,000 Boeing 747 shipping aircraft, even neglecting the fact that any vaccine would possibly require multiple doses. In addition, vaccines should be stored at low temperatures so not all aircraft are eligible lately.
Previously, Deutsche Post DHL had warned stakeholders that it is most likely that two-thirds of the world’s population will not find it easy to maintain a COVID-19 vaccine at below-zero temperatures. If the temperature drops, the greater the disruptions and costs.
However, UPS began construction of two giant frozen garage facilities (in Louisville, Kentucky, USA). And Venlo, Netherlands), which exceed the length of a football field.
These “freezing farms” consist of a multitude of cube-shaped freezers two meters high at -80 degrees Celsius and capable of containing millions of doses of frozen COVID-19 vaccines for immediate shipment worldwide.
Although UPS still doesn’t reveal potential consumers of freezing farms, it’s not hard to guess who could benefit from those under-zero temperatures. Pfizer and BioNTech candidate vaccines should be maintained between 70 and 80 degrees Celsius.
Clearly, with the exception of state-of-the-art cellular freezing shut-off units, the existing bloodless chain (and in the specific refrigerated transport) is not in a position to cope with these low temperatures.
Fortunately, there is an undeniable solution: an old intelligent dry ice (solid carbon dioxide), which is sublimated to -78. 5 degrees Celsius, can simply be used as a cooling fluid, thus avoiding the need for onboard cooling groups.
Pfizer has stated that your vaccine should be kept at 70/80 C for up to 6 months or in specially designed shipping boxes (“dry ice packs”) for up to 10 days. Once removed from the boxes, the vaccine can be kept thawed for one day at 2-8 degrees Celsius or a maximum of 2 hours at room temperature.
The company is now looking for a less complex option to stabilize the vaccine at higher temperatures.
Moderna Inc. , first, kept its vaccine at -70 degrees Celsius, but then controlled to expand the garage and shipping to 20 degrees Celsius for up to 6 months. also working to stabilize the vaccine at higher temperatures.
Russian vaccine label Sputnik V says: “Storage at a temperature above 18 degrees Celsius. No unfreezed preparation garages are allowed. “
Of course, this newer pair of vaccines can simply take credit for the pre-existing bloodless chain infrastructure, designed to buy or distribute frozen food at the popular temperature of -18 degrees Celsius.
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are partnering with some other vaccine-producing company. Translate Bio Inc. , a smaller sanofi worker founded in the United States, had in the past proposed a variant of the Modern MND vaccine that would remain at 80 degrees Celsius.
Many of the COVID-19 vaccines being tested require freezing; good examples are Johnson’s experimental vaccines
Several companies, such as CureVac, are working to stabilize the molecule at higher temperatures, for example through freeze-drying. Although unfreezed (refrigerated) vaccines appear to be more exciting for maximum stakeholders, their long-term stability and result life remains a challenge.
Any failure in the integrity of the chain is disastrous
Providing each and every human being with quick access to COVID-19 vaccines at immunization sites around the world will not be a simple exercise. Anyone who wants a vaccine deserves to get it anywhere in the world. No one is there until everyone is
The European Commission negotiated on behalf of the EU27 and signed its first contract with AstraZeneca, a vaccine opposed to COVID-19 will be purchased for all EU Member States, donations are also planned to low- and middle-income countries, as well as one to non-EU European countries.
Thus, the EU27 can purchase three hundred million doses, with the option of distributing one hundred million additional doses in proportion to the population. The agreement follows the recommendation of the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance (Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands). ).
Although the AstraZeneca vaccine was temporarily discontinued because a vaccinated volunteer had to be hospitalized, the Commission signed a contract for the time being with Sanofi-GSK for up to three hundred million doses for EU27 and reached a framework agreement with BioNTech and Pfizer for two hundred million doses. with a imaginable supplement of one hundred million doses.
Pfizer has already activated its source chain and its frozen food production in Belgium.
WHO reports that more than part of the world’s vaccines are wasted due to temperature logistics and shipping-related problems. While AstraZeneca will likely require a refrigerated rather than frozen source chain, maintaining a suitable refrigerated chain is no less complicated than a frozen chain. .
The new EU Member States and the candidate countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe still have significant gaps and gaps in their bloodless chain infrastructure. In some cases, bloodless chains in emerging countries are so rare that vaccines sent there would possibly be in vain. .
Before sending a vaccine, the Commission and national governments deserve to explain the scenario of the bloodless chain in each country, whenever necessary, deserve moderate monetary aid, it will be much wiser and less costly for the bloodless chain to lose. giant quantities of valuable biotech products.
To avoid monopolization, it is highly desirable to rely on embedded universal chains that allow a diversified source of several freely competitive vaccine suppliers, as well as a point of transparency for representatives of public government and civil society.
Biotechnology experts and embedded chains want to merge their skills well in advance to identify optimal handling and shipping regimes, incentives, standards, protocols, and legislative documents related to industry chains of origin. bloodless for the COVID-19 vaccine. In this way, any unforeseen events can be addressed in a timely manner.
Otherwise, the vaccine provider may also simply ask stakeholders with a list of laboratory-compiled needs that may prove unviable in the genuine environment of the bloodless chain industry.
Finally, there is a transparent and sustainable temperature-controlled chain for vaccines without today’s data and communication technologies. While many other people see the bloodless chain as guaranteed, not fulfilling one’s express desires becomes a harmful slippery slope.
The European and national government will have to join forces to identify a fully traceable, continuous and ubiquitous cold-based vaccine chain, which is by no means an extravagance, but is an obligation in today’s knowledge-based economy.
Do you like EURACTIV reports? We want your support, expensive reader,
More than ever we want independent and specialized data on the functioning and reasons of the European Union, this data deserves not to be through a payment wall and we remain committed to delivering our content for free.
We know that our readers appreciate our stories, and the great amount of help we have gained since the beginning of the crisis shows that our readers are in a position to mobilize for journalism that they accept as true and valued. our journalism as our page perspectives have tripled. At the same time, the help of readers in the form of recurring monthly monetary contributions provides permanent assistance to our tables that allows us to innovate.
We are more than ever in our role as a bridge between the media, politicians and the public, and we thank them for their support.
Your recurring monthly monetary contributions help us innovate for the future. Make a recurring contribution to EURACTIV Media Network for Europe.
Do you like our reports? We love you!
Your money is helping to build the long term of our publishing network across Europe.