Pfizer Reduced Initial Target Of Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment After Supply Chain Obstacles

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE were hoping to deploy 100 million vaccines globally by the end of this year, a plan that has now been reduced to 50 million. The UK granted emergency use authorization for the vaccine on Wednesday, becoming the first Western country to start administering doses.

The two-dose vaccine is also under review by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, where a similar authorization could come later this month and a rollout before the end of the year. The US regulator is also considering a vaccine developed by Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Inc.

which could start shipping before Christmas.

The doses are one of a series of vaccines that were developed this year as the coronavirus pandemic rages across much of the world. Authorities estimate that nearly 1.5 million people worldwide have died from the virus, including 273,836 in the United States as of December 2.

“We were late,” said a person directly involved in the development of the Pfizer vaccine. “Some of the first batches of raw materials did not meet standards. We fixed the issue, but ran out of time to respond to shipments scheduled for this year. “

Pfizer sources its raw materials from suppliers in the United States and Europe. Increasing the production of these components proved difficult last month as the company awaited the results of its trials, which were found to be 95% effective and well tolerated in a trial of 44,000 subjects.

Pfizer declined to comment on where the ingredient shortages came from when ramping up production. Vaccines usually contain materials from vendors which may include anti-virus agents, antiseptic fluids, sterile water, and pieces of the DNA of the virus itself that will not cause severe symptoms but will prompt the immune system to shut down. make antibodies.

In a typical vaccination campaign, pharmaceutical companies would wait for their product to be approved before purchasing raw materials, establishing manufacturing chains, and setting up supply chains to ship a vaccine. Pfizer has never made a vaccine with technology that uses mRNA, the molecular couriers that transmit genetic instructions to cells in the human body, so it had to increase its production capacity even as research was still ongoing.

“For this one, it all happened simultaneously,” said the person familiar with the development of Pfizer. “We started building the supply chain in March, while the vaccine was still in development. It is totally unprecedented.

Pfizer and BioNtech are now on track to deploy 1.3 billion vaccines in 2021 and the shortfall of 50 million doses this year will be covered as production increases.

The company is setting up what it has described as its largest vaccination campaign ever through two final assembly and distribution centers in Kalamazoo, Mich., And Puurs, Belgium, which will manage the European supply. .

UK clearance marks an important step in the effort to develop promising new vaccine technology into a widely available vaccine in record time.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of Pfizer, enough to immunize 20 million people. The government said in November it could receive up to 10 million doses this year, but four to five million vaccines are now expected to be shipped.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the injections would be rolled out as quickly as possible at Pfizer’s factory in Belgium. Some 800,000 are expected in the coming days and “several million” throughout the month of December, he said.

The US government has placed an initial order for 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, with the possibility of purchasing an additional 500 million doses.

The EU has ordered 200 million doses with an option for another 100 million. Japan has ordered 120 million doses, and countries in South America and the Asia-Pacific region have also placed large orders.

Write to Costas Paris at [email protected]