Drugmaker steps up production of potential coronavirus vaccine in record time

Potential of drug maker AstraZeneca coronavirus The vaccine is currently in the advanced testing phase, and the company says it has the capacity to produce three billion doses when the vaccine is ready. But even before the final stages of testing and government approval, the vaccine is booming in manufacturing.

“In this particular process, you are going to make millions of vaccines,” Pall Corporation strategy director Dr. Clive Glover said.

But the challenge is to go from a small vial of vaccine to billions of doses – quickly.

“This process would generally be measured in years,” Glover said. “And five years is not unusual. We were able to design the process, have our equipment delivered to one of our manufacturing partners and complete the initial process in eight weeks.”

“So it was a sprint to say the least,” added Glover.

This sprint is now a relay race – and a biotech lab on the south coast of England has taken over. The process begins with the manufacture of a small batch of vaccine.

“We grow the cells in this bioreactor and use a starter version of the vaccine, put that in the bioreactor,” Glover said. “It infects the cells that grow inside here and allows the vaccine to make more of the vaccine itself.”

The rest is a complex filtering process that filters out impurities until they are left with a vaccine bag ready for the vials – and eventually, your arm.

One plan will be used by vaccine makers around the world, all of whom are waiting for the green light to start rolling out, hopefully in record time.