5 ms·
For those wondering how their vaccines will be distributed among countries during the next year when supply is constrained... it seems complicated. Pfizer is a
by tuna-piano 6y ago
For those wondering how their vaccines will be distributed among countries during the next year when supply is constrained... it seems complicated. Pfizer is a US company, but has at least one key ingredient from Austria, is made with technology from Germany, has manufacturing in US+Europe, etc.
Pfizer's CEO answered this question this morning on CNBC.
Pfizer has two separate manufacturing divisions- one in the US (Massachusetts, Missouri, Michigan) and one in Europe (Germany+Belgium).
They will be producing in parallel and he seemed to imply Europe manufactured->Europe distributed and US manufactured->US distributed initially (but didn't explicitly say this). But he then stated that it's important to share the vaccine across the world - "I hope that we will be able to ship to the entire world from these manufacturing sites without problems".
They have signed contracts with multiple governments in the world and in most cases have defined their monthly quantities distributed to those countries through 2021. I would guess these are public and am curious about the quantities and timelines for the various countries.
They are estimating to have 1.2 billion doses by the end of 2021 (enough for 600 million people, as each person needs two doses).
EDIT:
US: 100 million doses of this Pfizer vaccine (enough for 50 million people) by December 2020[1], but Pfizer now says they are only producting 50 million doses globally this year[2]
[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/pfizer-corona...
[2]https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-announce-vaccine-candidate-against https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-deta...
- romanovcode 6y agoWhy not share the knowledge make the vaccine in all three countries? AFAIK for the last 2-3 days EU and US are partners again, not enemies.
- bluGill 6y agoI would assume that the countries are the only ones with a factory that is capable of making this. Give me a few billion dollars and a year and I can set up another factory, but it would have been too risky an investment 1 year ago (before COVID), or even 3 months ago . Even now it is too risky an investment as the current factories can produce a lot of vaccine, and there are other candidates that also have factories, so odds are the world will be vaccinated before my 1 year factory comes online. A 1 year factory build is extremely fast - freely trading money for time. A more reasonable schedule would be several years (a lot cheaper)
- funcDropShadow 6y agoDidn't Bill Gates' foundation invest 6-7 billion dollars in manufactoring capabilities for vaccines this spring?
- bluGill 6y agoI think he cares about cost effective. He is expecting more than a year to get them running, but in return he can get far more vaccine. He has been working for years on getting various vaccines and has a good idea what the long game is by now.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- datenhorst 6y agoDo you have more information about the ingredient from Austria?
- alexduggleby 6y agoPolymun from Klosterneuburg (near Vienna) are suppliers of Lipid-Nanoparticles used for mRNA vaccines. Translated from: "Bei der Impfstoff-Entwicklung von Pfizer und Biontech mischt auch die Klosterneuburger Firma Polymun mit. Die heimischen Experten liefern wichtige Teile für die Vakzine zu. Als eines von nur wenigen Unternehmen weltweit ist Polymun auf die Herstellung von Lipid-Nanopartikeln spezialisiert. Diese werden für die Herstellung von mRNA-Impfstoffen gegen Covid-19 gebraucht, da die verwendete mRNA ein geeignetes Transportvehikel braucht, um in den Körper eingeschleust zu werden." Source (German): https://kurier.at/wissen/gesundheit/biontech-plant-zulassungsantrag-fuer-corona-impfstoff/401091657 https://kurier.at/wissen/gesundheit/biontech-plant-zulassung...
- tuna-piano 6y ago"Polymun Scientific Immunbiologische Forschung GmbH is one of a handful of makers of lipid nanoparticles, microscopic vessels used to deliver genetic material into the body." https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-one-leading-coronavirus-vaccine-works-thank-this-tiny-firm-in-rural-austria-11604664001 https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-one-leading-coronavirus-vacc...